


met a lot of people, but nobody feels like you

by spideychoni



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: AU, Charchie Friendship, F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-09
Updated: 2021-02-15
Packaged: 2021-03-13 15:21:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 22,874
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28655640
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spideychoni/pseuds/spideychoni
Summary: Archie Andrews has been in love with his best friend, Cheryl Blossom, ever since he can remember. He expects he always will be. What he doesn’t expect is a certain pink haired girl to come stumbling unexpectedly into their lives, changing everything.or,the charchie friendship AU you didn’t know you needed.
Relationships: Archie Andrews/Cheryl Blossom, Cheryl Blossom/Toni Topaz
Comments: 10
Kudos: 103





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> i’m back with my first chaptered fic because i tried to write this as a one shot and it got way too long before i even finished it! so hi, this is an AU where cheryl and archie grow up together, but it is still definitely a choni fic, just with the added bonus of charchie best friendship. a lot of it will be canon compliant, hopefully it’ll make sense as it goes along. i have a good portion of this written so i will try and update pretty frequently if i can! 
> 
> tw in this chapter for homophobia, abuse, and attempted suicide.
> 
> enjoy!

For the past seventeen years of his life, Archie Andrews has been in love with the girl next door. 

Cheryl Blossom was her name, and everything about her was beautiful, even the sound of her name coming out of his mouth. They’d grown up together, bedroom windows facing each other from their respective mansions, and had been pretty much inseparable since they were babies.

He was rich, he knew that, his dad had the most successful construction company in Riverdale and the surrounding towns all the way to New York, and his mom was a big shot lawyer. So, he grew up comfortably, but never flaunted the fact that he was rich, his parents making sure he stayed humble despite his wealth. They were truly the best parents he could’ve asked for, and he likes to think he’s lived a pretty happy life so far.

Unlike Archie, however, and unbeknownst to him, his redheaded best friend grows up in a house full of darkness and despair. The walls of Thornhill hide many secrets, and if they could talk, the abuse of Cheryl Blossom would surely be the first to spill.

She has a twin brother, Jason, who Archie is also friends with but not as close as he was with Cheryl. They used to play together when they were younger, pretending to be pirates or waving around plastic guns in a game of cops and robbers, but as Jason got older, he gained popularity, becoming the star of the football team, a blonde girl in the year above them named Polly Cooper hanging from his arm.

The Coopers were also a well-known family in Riverdale. They weren’t rich, sure, but they were well liked among the town’s residents, and even Archie could admit that Polly’s younger sister, Betty, was beautiful. 

The only other family that could compete with the Blossom’s and the Andrews’ wealth were the Lodges. The daughter, Veronica, had started Riverdale High soon after everyone else, and had quickly captured the hearts of all of the students, her ‘reformed mean girl’ trick making her one of the most popular girls in no time. She had even caught Archie’s eye, for a moment.

But alas, his heart belonged to someone else. That someone else, who is sitting at his desk right now, painting her nails her signature shade of red as he sits on his bed fiddling with his guitar.

“What do you think of this color, Arch?” Cheryl asks, holding her hands up so he can see.

“It looks nice, Cher, but isn’t that the same color you always wear?” 

He was never one to get into learning about makeup, despite his best friend being obsessed with it. 

Cheryl rolls her eyes.

“Ugh, men, honestly. This is a new one, can’t you tell the difference?”

“Uh, yeah, totally!” Archie says, his voice betraying him as it breaks.

“We’ve been best friends since we were babies, Archie Andrews, you know I can tell when you’re lying,” Cheryl says, a hint of teasing to her tone.

“Right, sorry,” Archie mumbles. “Well, whatever the color, it still looks nice, Cher. You always do.” 

His cheeks flush a little as Cheryl beams at him. She thrives off of compliments, even if they are only from her best friend.

Cheryl was just as popular as her brother Jason, if not more so with how many guys, and girls, were in love with her at this point, but she never pays any attention to it. She had Archie, and she had Jason, and to her, that was all she needed. Sure, it could be lonely having her only friends be her brother and the boy that could’ve been her triplet with how close they were, but she liked it. It was safe. For Cheryl Blossom has secrets, and they were ones she intended to take to the grave. 

After her nails have dried, Cheryl moves to the bed to sit next to Archie, leaning against the wall and closing her eyes.

“Play me something?” she asks softly, and Archie’s palms begin to sweat a little as they always did when Cheryl asked him to play his guitar for her. 

He starts to strum out a tune, a new one he’d been working on, and Cheryl hums along, bopping her head to the music, her eyes still closed.

Oh, how Archie wishes they could stay in that moment forever, just him and his best friend who he so desperately wishes could be something more.

Cheryl has a curfew, her parents were strict like that, so she leaves soon after, but it doesn’t matter to Archie, because he knows they’ll be texting and FaceTiming for hours after she gets home anyway. They’d do it all night if it weren’t for school in the morning. They’ve even fallen asleep together on the phone before, being the last people they say goodnight to and the first people they say good morning to. Whenever that happens, Archie finds himself dreaming of a life where they fall asleep and wake up together in the same bed.

But he keeps his thoughts to himself, because Cheryl is his best friend, and he doesn’t want to lose that, or worse, get his heart broken. 

Cheryl doesn’t come to school the next morning. She does this sometimes, goes off the grid for a few days, and Archie never questions it, but it doesn’t help fix the ache in his heart whenever she’s not around. Sometimes she blames it on being tired from cheerleading practice, or illness, and Archie, faithful as ever, takes her excuses with no investigation and waits for her to return so they can walk the halls hand in hand like they always did. 

It’s only when Cheryl stops returning his calls that he starts to get worried. The reason for her silence makes itself clear as he opens this morning’s newspaper, his eyes widening in shock.

‘TEEN DEAD AFTER BOATING ACCIDENT’ is written in big bold letters at the top of the paper, and underneath is none other than a picture of Jason Blossom.

Archie can practically hear the sound of his heart thudding as it drops to his feet.

He rushes over to Thornhill, not caring that he’s only in sweatpants with no top on, and bangs on the door, calling Cheryl’s name.

“Cheryl! Cheryl, are you in there?!” Archie practically screams, his fist aching as he pounds on the door. 

The door swings open and Archie almost falls through, as Clifford Blossom looks at him in surprise. 

“Archie, what are you doing here?” he asks sternly.

“I-I just saw the paper. Mr. Blossom, I’m so sorry. Can I please see Cheryl?” he begs.

Clifford nods stiffly.

“Of course. She’s in her room. But be warned, Archie...her mental state is somewhat fragile at the moment.”

Archie barely takes the time to nod as he rushes past Clifford and races up the stairs, throwing the door open to Cheryl’s room, fully prepared to find her sobbing.

He stops in his tracks when he sees her look up at him, and is bewildered at the look on her face. She seems fine, actually. Not what Archie was expecting at all.

He steps cautiously into the room as Cheryl smiles at him and beckons him to come closer.

“Cheryl, are...are you okay? I just saw the paper. Why didn’t you call me?” Archie asks quietly, as he sits down on the edge of the bed.

“Can you keep a secret, Arch?” she whispers, and Archie nods immediately. He’s pretty sure he’d die for Cheryl at this point, so keeping a secret was no issue. 

“He’s not dead.”

Archie gapes at her.

“What are you talking about, Cheryl, it’s in the paper!” 

Cheryl shakes her head at him.

“I know that, but it’s not true! We faked his death so he could run away with Polly!”

Oh. Well that was certainly something.

He pauses for a beat, taking in what Cheryl’s said, before landing on a question.

“Why would Jason need to run away?” Archie asks.

Cheryl takes a moment to think of her answer. She couldn’t reveal too much about the horrors that went on in her house, so she needed to keep it vague.

“My parents...they’re not good people, Archie. Jason thought running away with Polly would be the best thing for both of them,” she says after a while. 

Archie feels like he’s been dropped into some alternate reality. What was Cheryl talking about? He knew her parents were strict, there was no doubt about that, but he doesn’t think that warranted Jason faking his death and running away with his girlfriend. He guesses though, that the most important thing was that he was safe, and not dead, and Cheryl seems happy enough, so he doesn’t push any further.

“Okay, Cher, whatever you say,” he sighs. “As long as you’re okay, that’s all that matters to me.” 

“I’m okay, Arch, I promise,” Cheryl reassures him, pulling him into a hug.

Archie sighs against her, the feeling of their skin touching making his heart race.

They pull back, and Cheryl’s looking at him, an eyebrow raised in amusement.

“You’ve got no top on,” she states. “Did you come over here just to flaunt your abs?” 

Archie laughs, his face turning red.

“No! I thought your brother fucking died, Cher, I didn’t even think about my clothes when I ran over here.”

“You’re truly the best of us, Archie Andrews,” Cheryl says with a smile. 

A few moments later, Penelope Blossom marches in, flinging the door open looking like she’s about to yell at Cheryl, but she stops short when she sees Archie sitting on the bed next to her.

Thank God, Cheryl thinks, that Archie was here. Her mother had always loved him, probably even more than she did her own daughter, but that wasn’t hard considering Penelope treated her like she was a piece of trash she’d stepped in on the sidewalk. So instead of shouting, instead of raising her hand and telling Cheryl that she wishes it was her that had died instead of Jason, Penelope simply smiles.

“Archie, you’re no doubt here to comfort Cheryl in this trying time, but I’d appreciate some time alone with my daughter,” she says promptly, ever the picture of composure, even when she believed her son to be dead.

Archie stands from the bed, giving Cheryl a quick hug as he does, before turning back to Penelope.

“I’ll leave you to it, Mrs. Blossom. And I’m so sorry for your loss.” 

Penelope nods and gestures at the door, and Archie leaves, wondering what it was that was so important she had basically pushed him out of the room.

He doesn’t hear the sound of the slap across Cheryl’s face as he walks back to his house, doesn’t hear her mother screaming at her and Cheryl begging for her to stop, he only sees the curtain drawn from through his window, as he sighs and gets ready for school, head spinning at what had just occurred. He doesn’t know that just one week later, everything would fall apart. 

—

It’s July 11th, and Archie is at Reggie Mantle’s house, practicing some football throws. Apart from Cheryl, Reggie was one of his other best friends, and certainly his closest guy friend. He’s also the only person he’d told about his feelings for Cheryl, which he regrets because Reggie teases him constantly for it.

His phone rings, and Archie drops the football and pulls it out of his pocket, his face lighting up as he sees the picture of him and Cheryl taking over the screen.

“Ooh, that your girlfriend, Andrews?” Reggie snorts, and Archie gives him the middle finger. 

“I wish,” he mutters, before swiping across the screen and putting the phone up to his ear. “Hey, Cher, what’s up?” Archie asks.

“Archie, can you come home? I-I really need you right now,” Cheryl sobs through the phone and Archie’s heart breaks at the sound.

“Of course, I’m on my way right now,” he says, hoping the firmness in his voice reassures her for the time being as the call ends. He didn’t know what was wrong, but Cheryl rarely cries, and he was perfectly ready to be there for her in whatever way she needed. 

“I’ve gotta go, Reggie, Cheryl needs me!” Archie yells behind him as he rushes out of the front door of the Mantle home. He doesn’t even give Reggie a chance to reply before he’s racing to his truck and driving to Thornhill. 

Archie gets to Thornhill in one piece, parking in the large driveway and getting out of his truck. He doesn’t bother knocking, Cheryl had texted him to tell him she was home alone, so he walks through the heavy wooden door and up the stairs, just like he did a week ago.

This time, however, when he enters Cheryl’s room, he’s greeted by a very different picture. 

Cheryl is sat with her arms wrapped around her knees, shaking, as tears and mascara stream down her face, her bottom lip trembling as she sobs.

Archie’s next to her in a heartbeat, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her in close as she grabs onto his shirt with a vice-like grip.

“Cher, hey, what’s wrong, what happened?” Archie asks softly, and Cheryl just shakes her head and sobs harder. 

“It’s okay, you’re okay, I’m right here,” he says as he rocks her slowly in his arms, trying to get her to stop hyperventilating.

It works after a while, and Cheryl detaches herself from Archie’s hold, wiping at her eyes with a sniff.

“Jason...he-he’s dead!” Cheryl cries, as Archie cups her face and wipes away her tears gently.

“What? How?” Archie asks in shock, Cheryl gulping before she answers.

“Someone shot him, Arch! Someone shot my brother!” she sobs as she finds herself in Archie’s arms once more.

They sit for a long time, Cheryl managing to explain that her brother’s body had been found by Kevin Keller and Moose Mason in between sobs, and Archie pushes his shock aside as he comforts his best friend. Darkness has settled around the grounds of Thornhill, as they sit hand in hand, hours of crying taking a toll on each of them.

Finally, Archie breaks the silence with a soft voice.

“Hey, how about we go to mine? My dad can make his famous hot chocolate, and my mom’s not back from New York for a few days,” he says quietly.

Cheryl just nods, and follows him as he leads her out of her room.

Fred Andrews must have already heard the news, because as they walk through the front door of Archie’s large home, he doesn’t say anything, just gives Cheryl a sympathetic look as Archie asks him to make his hot chocolate.

They’re sitting on the couch, Cheryl leaning into Archie’s chest, his arm wrapped around her, their hands being warmed by the mugs Fred had given them. It’s nice, despite the circumstances. Cheryl’s never been more grateful to have Archie Andrews in her life. She dreads going back to Thornhill, wonders what punishment awaits her for not taking Jason’s place in death, but for now, she revels in the comfort that the redheaded boy beside her is giving her. 

The news of Jason Blossom’s murder quickly spreads throughout the small town of Riverdale, shock weaving through the houses of its residents. Stares and whispers follow Cheryl down the halls of Riverdale High, but she keeps her head up and her hand firmly in Archie’s, trying her best to ignore them. It was just the two of them now. 

At one point, Betty Cooper approaches her, tells her she’s sorry and that Polly was in some place called the ‘Sisters of Quiet Mercy’, dealing with Jason’s death. Cheryl nods in acknowledgement, thanks her for her apology, before she leaves Betty standing alone in the hallway. She doesn’t really care about Polly, all she cares about is Jason, and how he was taken from her from some unknown person the police had still failed to catch. 

All she knows for sure is that whoever did this, whoever took her soulmate away from her, would incur the full wrath of Cheryl Blossom and nothing less. 

—

It had been three weeks since Jason Blossom’s body had been found, and Penelope Blossom’s abuse had only heightened. Cheryl always saw her abuse as the third person in her parent’s marriage, it had been in her life so long. 

She’s drawing in her room one day, a picture of Jason, without a bullet hole in his head, when Penelope storms through the door, making her jump and drop her pencil. She knows what’s coming, but the dread still makes her heart ache.

“Are you drawing filth again, Cheryl?” Penelope seethes, ripping the sketchbook from her hands.

“No, mother, it’s just a picture of Jay Jay,” Cheryl says quietly. Any raise of her voice would surely make what was coming even worse. 

Penelope hums as she skims through the book, like she’s suddenly going to find pictures of naked women nestled in between the pages. The thought makes Cheryl want to laugh and cry at the same time, but she does neither as she stands, holding out her hand.

“Can I have my sketchbook back, please?” she asks, her voice coming out in a murmur.

Penelope hands her the book back with a huff, before she’s stepping closer to her daughter, eyes ablaze with fury.

“Remember what happened the last time I caught you drawing such disgusting things, Cheryl?” she asks lowly, and Cheryl nods, the memory of a belt whipping through the air making her wince.

Stupidly, she thinks her mother actually won’t do anything to her this time, because she lets out a breath of relief as Penelope turns, as if to walk away. The memory of Cheryl’s drawings seem to have ignited a flame inside her, however, because as soon as the breath had left Cheryl’s mouth, she’s whipping around, and striking her roughly with the back of her hand.

Cheryl cries out as she falls to the floor from the force of the hit, her cheek stinging, as tears fall down the reddened area. She had fallen on her elbow awkwardly and a bolt of pain shoots through her arm as she lifts it, making her whimper. There’s a tangy taste in her mouth, and as she moves her tongue to her lip, she feels it’s cut open, Penelope’s ring catching her as she had slapped her. Cheryl looks up at her mother, who was standing over her, sneering.

“Your deviance repulses me, Cheryl Marjorie. You are a disappointment to our great family name!” she yells, before she’s bringing her heel down into Cheryl’s rib with a swift kick and stalking back out the door as quickly as she had come in.

Cheryl feels the breath leave her at the force of the kick, and she sits up, clutching her side in agony, breathing raggedly.

She stands on shaky legs, walking over to her full length mirror to inspect the damage like she had done countless times before. It felt like routine at this point.

Her cheek is swollen and red, and there’s a cut on her lip, blood stains trickling down her chin. She lifts her shirt gingerly, her arm still aching from where she had fallen, and sighs as she sees the beginning of a bruise forming over her side, all purples and blues caressing her ribs.

She should tell someone, she knows she should. But even Jason didn’t know the extent of the abuse, and if she couldn’t tell the boy who’d been with her since birth, then how could she tell anyone else? Besides, her family were the richest and most powerful in all of Riverdale, no doubt they’d just pay off anyone who might believe her and want to get her help. And Archie? Well, Archie wasn’t even an option. She so desperately wants to tell him the horror that she endures, feeling like she gets beaten just for existing at this point, but he'd more than likely want to come over and bash her mother’s face in, which wouldn’t end well for either of them. God, she can’t wait to turn eighteen and get the hell out of here. 

Her phone ringing brings her out of her thoughts, and she drops her shirt, going over to the bed where she had left it. She smiles at the picture of Archie flashing across the screen, but that turns into a wince as it opens the cut on her lip even more.

“Hey, Arch,” she says softly, not giving away anything about what had just occurred with her mother.

“Hey, you, how are you feeling?” 

Archie had been asking Cheryl that a lot recently, almost to the point where it got on her nerves, but she knows it comes from love, and she’s got a lack of that at the moment, so she’ll take what she can get.

“I’m okay, just doing some drawing, what about you?” Cheryl replies. It wasn’t a lie, technically. She was drawing before her mother had rudely interrupted.

“I’m good, missing you though. Want to come over?” Archie asks, hope lacing his voice. 

Cheryl thinks about the swelling on her cheek and the cut on her lip and knows that’s not an option.

“Uh, I can’t, Archie, not today. Practice ran over so I’m pretty tired. I think I’m getting sick again, too,” she lies easily.

She knows she’ll have to take at least a few days out of school for her face to heal, and her parents may be demons but at least they had the good sense to pay Principal Weatherbee to turn a blind eye to her absences. 

“Oh, okay, well I’ll see you when you’re better?” Archie asks sadly.

“Yeah, definitely. Love you,” Cheryl says before ending the call, Archie repeating those same words back to her. Little does she know, they were meant in a completely different way.

When Cheryl gets back to school, she doesn’t expect Kevin Keller to corner her in the student lounge, Archie looking at him with surprise as he walks up to them both.

“Did you hear? It was one of those Southsiders that threw Jason’s body in Sweetwater River! I heard he’s the leader of that gang, the Serpents? You heard of them?” Kevin asks, ever the gossip.

“Of course I’ve heard of them, Kevin, they’re nothing but low-life scum. And if they did have anything to do with Jason’s death, then I’m sure they’ll be punished as they deserve to be,” Cheryl replies stiffly.

“Hey, I’m just the messenger, here, see for yourself,” Kevin says, passing her a newspaper.

‘SERPENTS TO BLAME FOR TEEN’S DEATH’ is the first thing Cheryl sees, and then a picture of a man she doesn’t recognise in handcuffs, a leather jacket with a two-headed snake adorning his back.

“Wait, FP Jones?” Archie looks up at Cheryl and Kevin in surprise. “Isn’t that that kid Jughead’s dad?” 

Cheryl scoffs.

“What kind of a name is Jughead?” 

Archie shrugs.

“I don’t know, I’m pretty sure he’s in my English class, we should go talk to him.” 

“I don’t know if that’s a good idea...” Kevin trails off at the determined look on Cheryl’s face.

“Nonsense, Kevin, I have a right to know if those dirty snakes had anything to do with my sweet brother’s death,” Cheryl says firmly, before she’s standing up and holding out her hand for Archie to take.

Archie gladly accepts and they make their way to the cafeteria, Archie telling Cheryl to look for a boy with a grey beanie.

They spot him easily, stuffing a burger in his face as he sits with none other than Betty Cooper and Veronica Lodge. When did that happen?

Cheryl storms up to him, and at the sight of her, Jughead stands almost immediately, a look of guilt on his face.

“Cheryl, look, whatever you heard about my dad, I promise you he didn’t kill Jason, okay?” Jughead says hastily.

Cheryl looks him up and down in disgust, not even taking the time to wonder how he knew her name. She was the most popular girl in school, everyone did. 

“Whatever he did or didn’t do, he still threw my poor brother’s body in the river for him to rot and decompose like he was nothing! Did your dad ever think about what that would to me, to my family?!” she yells, getting the attention of everyone around them.

Betty stands up next to Jughead, as does Veronica, but Cheryl pays them no mind.

“Your precious father deserves to rot in jail for what he’s done,” she says, moving closer to Jughead and gripping him by the lapels of his jacket. “Come to think of it, I hope all of those filthy Serpents rot right along with him.”

Jughead gulps as he moves out of Cheryl’s grip but says nothing, simply looking at her with a steely look in his eyes.

“Oh, leave him alone, Cheryl, just because you and your boyfriend are rich doesn’t give you the right to start harassing others,” Veronica says, stepping forward.

“He’s not my boyfriend,” Cheryl says, and Archie can’t ignore the sting in his heart at her words. “And I’ll ‘harass’ whoever I want, especially if it’s Southside scum like your friend here. Who would’ve thought you’d stoop so low, Veronica. Come, Archie, I’m just about done here.”

Archie gives the trio an apologetic smile as Cheryl takes his hand and turns to leave the cafeteria. He doesn’t realise she’s crying until she’s dragging him into the girl’s bathroom and burying her head in his neck.

“Fuck, Cher, don’t cry, it’s okay,” he whispers, pressing a kiss to her hair. 

“I just...hate...them...so much!” Cheryl sobs. “How can he just sit there being okay with what his father did when my brother is never coming back?!” 

“I don’t know, Cheryl, but he’s not responsible for the actions of his dad,” Archie says softly, ever the voice of reason. Cheryl feels like he’s the only one who can get through to her these days.

She sniffles and leans back out of Archie’s grip, wiping the tears from her eyes and nodding solemnly. 

“You’re right, Arch,” she whispers. “I just feel so lost without him here.” 

“I know. And I get it, I do. I loved him too. But the only person you should really be blaming is the person who killed him, Cher. And you really can’t judge a whole group of people because of the actions of one man.”

“I can and I will,” Cheryl pouts.

Archie laughs, pulling her into his arms again and wrapping them around her.

“You’re a stubborn one, Cheryl Blossom. But I wouldn’t have you any other way.” 

—

The police go to arrest Clifford Blossom a month later. Unfortunately for them, he was found hanging in his barn, taking, in Cheryl’s eyes, the coward’s way out to avoid the punishment of killing his own son.

She’d been sitting in Archie’s room, watching some awful football movie that he’d promised her she’d love, when she got the call from Betty Cooper. One call was all it took for her world to come crashing down.

Apparently, and she would remember all this later as she cries in Archie’s arms, there had been a thumbdrive in Jason’s letterman jacket with a video of his father murdering him. At the time, she had been frozen in shock after hearing the words “your father killed Jason” come out of Betty’s mouth. She didn’t even need proof for her to know it was the truth. Her mother had abused her her whole life, so it makes sense that her father would be just as depraved.

Cheryl had raced over to Thornhill, telling Archie not to follow her and promising him they’d talk later, and bounded through the wooden door to find her mother and father eating dinner. She goes to stand next to Penelope, because despite her wicked ways, she was still her mom, and she needed her right now. 

“Why did you do it, Daddy?” Cheryl whispers, and when Clifford raises an eyebrow at her, she scoffs.

“Why. Did. You. Kill. Jason?” she asks, her voice low and angry.

Clifford sputters a few times, almost choking on his food as he goes to deny her accusation, but Cheryl simply raises a hand to silence him. 

“Save it. I’m sure you’ll tell the police everything they need to know.” 

She turns to leave, satisfied that she’s shaken her father enough to have him scared, when a sharp pain in her head has her gasping and crying out. Penelope, faithful wife as she was, yanks her daughter’s hair and pulls her back around to face her, gripping her by the shoulders.

“How dare you say such a thing about your father, Cheryl?!” she screams.

Cheryl’s mouth drops open in shock, before she’s wincing at the feeling of her mom’s nails digging into her skin. Unfortunately, it was a pain she had gotten used to over the years, but it still hurt like the first time every time she did it.

“It’s true! He killed Jason, mother, please believe me!” Cheryl whimpers as Penelope’s grip on her tightens. 

Penelope scoffs before she throws her to the floor, Cheryl landing haphazardly, her hipbone hitting the hard surface painfully.

“You disgrace this family, Cheryl. Get out of my sight,” Penelope says, looking down at her in disgust, like she’s more worried about whether the floor was okay than her own daughter.

Cheryl gets up shakily, her hip throbbing, and walks as fast as she can out of the hellhole she called a home.

She’s back in Archie’s arms before she knows it. 

A good two hours of crying from Cheryl and comforting words from Archie, and she’s finally regained enough composure to tell him what had happened. Though she makes sure to leave out the end of the story, hiding her abuse in a web of lies, that was one day doomed to unravel. 

The sound of sirens and flashing lights have them walking to the front door of Archie’s house, and there’s a swarm of cop cars surrounding the estate as they open the door. 

Sheriff Keller greets them, a grave look on his face.

“Did you arrest him?” Cheryl asks, her voice hoarse from all the crying she’d been doing.

To her surprise, he shakes his head.

“We went to. I’m sorry to be the one to tell you this, Cheryl, but it looks like your father took his own life to escape justice.”

Cheryl feels her knees buckle, but Archie’s strong arms are there to hold her up.

Her father and brother, both dead, in a matter of months. She’d never felt more alone, yet more thankful for the redheaded boy who’s arms she was in. 

“Look after her, Archie,” Sheriff Keller says grimly, before he’s turning and walking back to his deputies.

Archie doesn’t even get the chance to tell him that that was a stupid thing to say, because there wasn’t a world that existed where he wouldn’t take care of Cheryl Blossom.

—

The ice cracks beneath her fists as she beats the ground over, and over, and over.

She was done.

The death of her father had been her breaking point, the final nail in the coffin that was Cheryl Blossom’s mental state.

She was sick of the abuse from her mother, every day getting worse as Penelope’s grief and anger took over. She was sick of missing her brother, his death leaving a giant hole in her heart and a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. And she was sick of the thought of her father, dangling from a rope, too scared to face the consequences of murder and drug dealing.

So, Cheryl had made a decision, and here she was, kneeling on the ice of Sweetwater River, desperate to be reunited with her twin.

She had no one left. 

Her mother, cruel as she was, would be glad to get rid of her, and Archie, her sweet, precious Archie Andrews...well, she had sent him a text to say goodbye, and that was that.

Or so she thought.

“Cheryl!” 

A voice brings her out from her thoughts as she pauses her pounding against the ice.

She stands, turning, and the tears are already falling down her face as she sees the shape of a body and a flash of red across the frozen water.

Archie’s stuck.

Cheryl’s on the ice, and he wants to go to her, to tell her to stop and come home, but what if the ice breaks and they both fall through?

“Cheryl, come back to the shore, please!” he begs, cupping his hands around his mouth to make his voice louder.

All precaution is thrown out the window as he watches Cheryl plummet into the frozen depths below her.

“NO!” Archie screams, as he runs as fast as he can to the hole that she had fallen through.

The current must have her, because she’s gone, and he’s scrambling to push as much snow as he can out of the way so he can see through the ice. 

Cheryl, at the same time, is frozen in shock as the corpse of Jason Blossom reaches forward in an attempt to grab her. She screams, and her lungs feel like they’re going to collapse as water fills them, and then everything turns black.

Finally, after what feels like a lifetime, Archie sees the familiar sight of red hair beneath the water. He wants to sigh in relief, but the worst was far from over. He still had layers and layers of ice separating him and the love of his life.

Making a split second decision, Archie drives his hand down into the ice with as much force as he can muster. It cracks, but it’s not enough, so he repeats the action again and again, trying his best to ignore the pain and blood pouring from his knuckles.

The ice breaks, the sound reverberating around him, and he gasps as he reaches his arms into the freezing water, grabbing Cheryl and pulling her out as carefully and quickly as he can. 

She’s white as a sheet, the color drained from her face, and Archie puts his fingers to her neck, feeling desperately for a pulse. There is none.

“Come on, Cheryl, come on!” he shouts as he laces his fingers together and starts pumping on her chest.

He then pinches her nose, taking a deep breath and putting his lips to hers to breathe into her mouth. It was ironic, that the many times he’d dreamed of kissing Cheryl, he could never imagine it would be like this.

After repeating the action a few times, Archie finds himself laughing loudly in shock and relief as Cheryl’s eyes snap open and water spurts out of her mouth as she coughs.

He did it. 

Archie pulls his best friend close, wrapping his arms around her, and she’s shaking violently, shock settling in at what had just happened.

“I’ve got you, Cher, I’ve got you,” he whispers into her ear as he pulls her up from the ground bridal style.

He trudges across the ice as carefully as he can, until he reaches his truck and opens the door, setting Cheryl down into the soft leather gently. His dad would probably be mad that he made the seats wet, this was a $50,000 dollar vehicle after all, but that’s the last thing on his mind. All he cares about is Cheryl, who at this current moment is sitting staring out of the window in silence.

“I’m gonna take you back to mine, okay?” Archie asks, as he gets into the front seat of his truck, and Cheryl just nods solemnly in response.

His hand throbs as he grips the steering wheel and drives away from Sweetwater River, the adrenaline slowly wearing off and the pain settling in.

They arrive back home, and Cheryl still hasn’t said anything, she’d sat staring straight ahead of her for the whole journey in silence.

Archie gets out of his truck and walks round to the passenger door, opening it and holding his good hand out for Cheryl to take.

She does, after looking at him with teary eyes, and they walk into Archie’s house to find Fred and Mary Andrews sitting on the couch, anxiously awaiting their arrival. 

They both stand as they enter the room, Mary going up to Archie and enveloping him in a big hug.

“Thank God you’re both okay!” she says, her voice wobbling a little as she turns to look at Cheryl, who’s still dripping onto their hardwood floor.

“Fred, go get some towels and some of Archie’s sweatpants and a top. We’re gonna get Cheryl warm and dry and into some new clothes and then we’re going straight to the hospital to get them both looked over,” Mary orders.

Fred nods, leaving the room and then returning a few minutes later, towels and clothes in his arms.

He gestures for Cheryl to turn around, and wraps a towel around her, the girl still shivering, but not as violently.

Cheryl takes the clothes from Fred and goes into the downstairs bathroom, getting changed as quickly as she can so she can actually feel some warmth for the first time since the whole ordeal.

When she’s done, she walks out of the bathroom to see Archie smiling at her, a bloody towel wrapped around his hand.

“Hey,” he says softly, holding his arms out.

She walks into his embrace, burying her head in his chest, hoping to convey just how thankful she was to have him in her life.

Archie presses a kiss to her hair before they break apart and are ushered into the Andrews’ car to go to the hospital.

As suspected, Archie has a broken hand and sprained wrist, but Cheryl, luckily, had escaped without injury other than a mild case of shock. 

Archie gets his hand put in a cast, and at the sight of it, Cheryl feels guilt flood her, and Archie knows this, knows his best friend won’t stop apologising for weeks if he doesn’t reassure her that he was fine.

Truthfully, he’d happily break his hand a thousand times if it meant Cheryl was okay. 

They don’t tell Penelope what happened. They’re laying shoulder to shoulder on Archie’s bed, Cheryl still in his clothes, when Archie asks about telling her mom. At the mere mention of it, Cheryl tenses up, looking Archie directly in the eye and making him swear on their friendship not to say anything. Archie hesitates, because this was a big thing to keep from your mother, but the panic shining in her eyes makes him relent. 

He’s been wondering a lot more lately if Cheryl was keeping something from him in regards to her parents, her mom in particular. He doesn’t want to think it, because he trusts his best friend implicitly, but some things just don’t add up. The unexplained absences, Cheryl’s quiet demeanour when she was around her mother, so different from her every day self, the hatred that seems to spill from Penelope Blossom’s eyes as she looks at her daughter. All of it puts Archie on edge as he tries not to think of the worst. Surely she wasn’t doing anything to Cheryl that she wouldn’t tell him about, right? And then there was this. What kind of parent was she if Cheryl was too scared to tell her about something as life-changing as a suicide attempt? If it were him, he likes to think he could go to his mom and dad before attempting such a thing. 

What he doesn’t know, is that Penelope, and Clifford when he was alive, were the polar opposites of Fred and Mary Andrews. Where one family thrived on love and support, the other lived to tear down their daughter. 

Cheryl’s asleep now, warm and dry in Archie’s clothes, the events of the day finally taking their toll and making her crash out. As Archie looks at her, apart from the obvious thoughts that she was beautiful, he wonders just how much more could go wrong for the girl beside him.

She had lost her brother and father in the span of a few months, had almost taken her own life, and, though he didn’t know it, was living in an abusive household, her mother’s hold on her getting worse by the day.

As it turns out, the universe wasn’t done with Cheryl Blossom just yet, as far away on the Southside of Riverdale, a pink haired girl learns that her school has shut down and all hell breaks loose. 

—

Cheryl is standing by Archie’s locker, a red sharpie in her hand as she writes her initials in a big heart on his cast, when the speaker above her chimes, making her look up.

“As many of you have heard, Southside High has been shut down due to criminal involvement by one of the teachers. Therefore, some of the students from said school will be transferring to our very own Riverdale High, effective immediately. I expect you all to welcome them with open minds and treat them with the same amount of respect you treat your peers,” Principal Weatherbee’s voice booms through the hallway.

Cheryl looks up at Archie, who matches her expression of shock. What he doesn’t match is the anger that’s also written on her face.

Archie has no problem with the Southside, his parents making sure he grew up without prejudice, but the same could not be said for Cheryl. He’s always tried to get her to see that just because they were less fortunate than them, they weren’t beneath her, but her parents had obviously instilled their classism so deep into her brain that not even her best friend could change that. So he knows, without a doubt, that drama is going to occur, as it often did whenever Cheryl was around. Chaos had always thrived in the Blossom family, and Cheryl was no exception to that. 

The students of Riverdale High start to crowd into the hallway, anxiously awaiting the arrival of their Southside peers. Some had looks of rage on their faces, Reggie Mantle included, others boredom, and the rest just plain excitement. 

Jughead Jones is at the front, donning a serpent jacket, his beanie firmly on his head as he waits. Archie doesn’t know when Jughead had become a serpent, but he’d clearly followed in his father’s footsteps and joined the gang a few weeks prior. 

The double doors swing open, and the noise of the crowd quiets down, as a group of students in leather jackets walk through, heads held high, exuding confidence. 

At the forefront, Archie observes a freakishly tall boy with a tattoo on his neck, dark hair slicked back and a smirk on his face. Next to him, is a slightly shorter boy, his jacket sleeveless, showing off the tattoo on his shoulder. And next to that boy walks a shorter girl, wearing a crop top and flannel underneath her serpent jacket, her pink hair catching his eye immediately. What he doesn’t see is that same pink hair has caught the eyes of his redheaded best friend.

If you had asked Archie Andrews what moment had started the change of everything, he would have to say it was this one.

But for now, he remains blissfully unaware as Veronica and Kevin walk forward, smiles on their faces.

“Welcome, Southside High students! Or should I say Riverdale High students, as of this very moment!” Veronica says sweetly. 

Cheryl barges to the front of the crowd, Reggie by her side, the both of them clearly annoyed by Veronica’s overly cheery welcome.

“The only thing you should be referring to them by is ‘scum’, Veronica,” Cheryl says, eyeing the leather-clad group with venom. 

Archie watches as the pink haired girl surges forward, anger painting her features.

“Hey, you wanna watch your mouth or am I gonna have to make you?” the girl says, directing her voice to Cheryl.

“I see you’re living up to your reputation as violent criminals, whoever you are,” Cheryl responds, stepping forward so she’s inches away from the girl’s face. If she wasn’t so pissed, she might have been able to admit to herself that it was a very beautiful face indeed. 

They look each other directly in the eyes, as if to see who would dare to make the next move, but suddenly, the tall boy is gripping the girl’s shoulder, pulling her backwards and out of the way of Cheryl Blossom’s angry gaze. 

“Toni, come on, we don’t want to get in trouble already, we only got here five minutes ago,” the tall boy says, and Toni huffs, running her fingers through her hair.

“Don’t think we’re done here. You may be pretty but I know a bitch when I see one, and you could use getting taken down a few pegs,” Toni says to Cheryl, whose mouth opens slightly in complete awe that someone could speak to her that way. She doesn’t even want to think about the way her cheeks flush at the mere thought of being called pretty by this girl. 

Toni and her two friends walk away, grabbing a timetable from Veronica as they do, the rest of the Southside High students following their lead.

Archie finally steps forward, resting a hand on Cheryl’s shoulder, silently begging her to let it go with a look that only she could interpret.

“Well, that certainly went well,” he hears Kevin laugh as they walk back to Archie’s locker. 

“As well as it could with Cheryl Blossom involved.” Veronica replies.

Archie wants to go over to them, to tell them that, yes, Cheryl was a drama queen, but she was also kind, and loving, and smart, and still hurting from the deaths of not one, but two of her family members, but he stays quiet as the bell rings and him and Cheryl part ways. 

The next time Archie sees Toni is in his English class, the only class he doesn’t have with Cheryl. She had a higher grade than him, so they were set different teachers at the beginning of the year, much to their dismay. 

To his surprise, Toni walks up to him as he’s getting his books out at his desk. Archie looks up, an eyebrow raised as the pink haired girl and her two friends sit in the desks beside him.

“Hey, I saw you were one of the only people that weren’t looking at us like we were trash, so I figured I’d introduce myself. I’m Toni Topaz, and these two lovable idiots are Sweet Pea,” she gestures to the taller boy, “and Fangs Fogarty.” 

Archie smiles.

“Hey, Toni. Hi, guys. I’m Archie Andrews.”

“Nice to meet you, Archie Andrews,” Toni says, holding out her hand for him to shake, which he does. “So, who’s the girl?” she asks, pointing to Cheryl’s initials on his cast. 

Archie smiles.

“That was written by my best friend, Cheryl. You met her, actually. She kind of...called you guys scum,” he replies, cringing a little at the memory.

Toni nods in recognition.

“Right, the pretty one. Figures a girl that beautiful would think us Southsiders to be beneath her.”

Sweet Pea snorts.

“Yeah, her ego’s probably as large as her bank account.” 

Fangs laughs, fist pumping his best friend who’s still chuckling.

“Hey, she’s not as bad as everyone thinks. She says a lot of stuff she doesn’t mean,” Archie says, always ready to defend his best friend. “Plus, she has a valid reason to hate at least one of you. Your leader threw her dead brother in Sweetwater River.”

Toni gapes at him.

“Wait, Cheryl? As in Cheryl Blossom? Jesus, yeah, now that I think about it, she has every right to hate us.”

“Come on, T, she can’t hate all of us because of what FP did, that’s not fair,” Sweet Pea pipes up behind her.

“Whatever, Sweets, it’s not like it matters. Like we’d ever be friends with a Blossom,” Toni scoffs.

The teacher walks in a few moments later, and their conversation ends as they turn to listen to him talk. 

Little do all of them know that Toni was about as wrong as she could be when she said she could never be friends with Cheryl. None of them could foresee that this was just the beginning of their story.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cheryl and Toni’s relationship starts to unfold, sparking a series of events that no one in the small town of Riverdale could have foretold.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> really appreciating how well this fic has been received! i already had this written so i’m posting it quite quickly after the first chapter, updates may take a little longer after this one. but thanks for the love and hope you enjoy chapter 2! 
> 
> tw for homophobia, abuse, and attempted sexual assault

Cheryl’s sitting in a booth at Pop’s, utterly exhausted, as she leans back into the leather and closes her eyes in defeat. 

Her mother had been on another one of her rampages, had been drinking again, ranting and raving about how Cheryl was worthless, deviant, and a whole host of other insults. She’d said all this with a tight grip around Cheryl’s wrist, her nails digging into her skin so harshly she had made her bleed. It hurts, but somehow not as much as her words. 

So, here she sits, a ring of black and blue snaking it’s way around her wrist, blood staining her ivory skin.

She presses her wrist against the glass of her milkshake, the temperature soothing the wound as she winces, but ultimately sighs in relief. 

Her eyes snap open and she’s pulling her sleeve down hastily when she feels a figure sit down opposite her. Her gaze falls on a head of pink hair as she looks at the girl in front of her in surprise.

“What’s up, Blossom? You look like shit,” Toni says with a smirk.

Cheryl knows it’s true. She’s not wearing any makeup, her hair is up in a messy bun, her eyes were red and stinging from how much she’d been crying in her car before she’d got to Pop’s, and she’s wearing one of Archie’s old Nike hoodies and jeans. So yes, she probably looks about as good as she feels. 

“Haven’t you ever heard of a thing called privacy, snake?” Cheryl asks, anger in her voice, but it quickly depletes as Toni just sits across from her, that same smirk on her face.

“Jesus, someone’s defensive. Who pissed in your cereal this morning?” 

“It’s none of your business,” Cheryl snaps. When was this girl going to get the message? 

“Look, I think we may have gotten off on the wrong foot. I know we both come from different worlds and you hate Southsiders with all of your heart, but if we’re going to be at the same school, can’t we at least be civil?” Toni asks.

Cheryl pauses, taken aback. But there’s something about the soft tone in Toni’s voice that has her mumbling a “fine” in response to her question.

“Great! Then let me introduce myself. I’m Toni Topaz, I like photography, I’m in a gang, and my best friends are Sweet Pea and Fangs,” Toni says, extending her hand for her to take.

“Cheryl Blossom,” Cheryl says stiffly, shaking Toni’s hand.

Toni stares at her, frustrated.

“Come on, you gotta give me more than that.”

Cheryl rolls her eyes.

“If you insist. I’m Cheryl Blossom, I like drawing, I’m not in a gang, and my best friend is Archie Andrews,” she says finally. 

“Now we’re getting somewhere! So, Archie, huh? Something going between the two of you?” Toni asks with a wink.

Cheryl almost gags at the thought.

“Ew, no, he’s like my brother. We’re best friends, that’s it,” she says firmly. “That’s like me asking if there’s something between you and your tall friend.”

“Okay, I get it. And in case you’re wondering, no, I’m not dating Sweets or Fangs. Like you said, they’re like my brothers. Besides, I’m more into girls, anyway,” Toni says, like it’s the easiest thing in the world for her to talk about her sexuality.

Cheryl’s brain pretty much short circuits at this information, but after years of abuse she’s perfected her poker face, so she just looks at Toni with indifference. 

“Good to know.”

It made no difference to her whether Toni liked girls or not. She knows lots of people that aren’t straight, and they had no impact on her life, so why should this gang member she’s only known for five minutes be any different? In another life, maybe Cheryl would be out and proud, living happily with a girl to call her own, but for now, she stays in the closet, miserable, but safe, keeping the information that Toni likes girls in the back of her brain. Her mother may control her whole life, but Cheryl’s thoughts were hers and hers only.

Toni’s looking at Cheryl, head tilted slightly as she tries to discern what was going inside of her mind. Figuring it to be no use, this girl has more guards up than anyone she’s ever seen, she settles on a question that was the entire reason she’d walked over here.

“So, how’d you get that bruise on your wrist?” Toni asks, getting straight to the point. She’d never been one for subtlety.

Cheryl freezes. Oh God, this wasn’t good. She should’ve been more careful. 

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” she replies, ice in her tone as she goes straight for the defensive.

Toni doesn’t seem perturbed by her coldness, simply smiles at her softly as if to tell Cheryl that she was safe, even though they barely knew each other and the girl in front of her had called her scum just a few days ago.

“So, if I lifted up your sleeve right now, there wouldn’t be anything there?”

“Like I’d let your hands anywhere near my body,” Cheryl scoffs, but she could feel her heart beating erratically the closer Toni got to the truth.

“Please, you wish you could get a piece of this,” Toni bites back, gesturing to herself with a smirk.

“I’m straight, Topaz, so no, I don’t wish that at all,” Cheryl says immediately, her heart practically pounding of her chest. What right does this girl have to come over to her and ask about her bruises, and on top of that, flirt with her? Cheryl was out of her depth here and she knew it. 

Toni shrugs.

“That’s a shame, Blossom. Maybe me and you could have had an epic Southside/Northside romance like Romeo and Juliet.”

“You do know they both die in the end, right?” Cheryl asks, though it would surprise her if this girl had even heard of Shakespeare let alone read his work.

“I can read, you know,” Toni says. “Anyway, I see what you’re doing. You’re avoiding my question, Cheryl.”

Great. So her deflection tactic hadn’t worked.

“What business is it of yours?” Cheryl asks coolly.

“I don’t like seeing people in pain. It’s one of my best and worst qualities, I guess, I want to help people no matter who they are. I think my friends would wonder just what the hell I’m doing trying to help a Blossom,” Toni replies.

“You’re right. You know nothing about me, Toni, so I wouldn’t waste your time. You and I? That friendship’s never gonna happen. I’d appreciate it if you stayed out of things that don’t concern you,” Cheryl says, standing up to leave.

She gasps and whimpers a little, however, as Toni grabs her from where she’s sitting, pain shooting through her wrist.

Cheryl whirls around, her eyes watering as she glares at Toni, who immediately releases her hold around her wrist. 

“Shit, I’m sorry,” Toni says immediately. “Please sit down, Cheryl, I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

If she wasn’t feeling so vulnerable right now, fresh from another attack from her mother, and the trauma of her suicide attempt, Cheryl is sure she wouldn’t be giving Toni the time of day. But she’s tired, and hurting, and Toni seems genuine enough, and really, wouldn’t it be good to talk to someone for once? Even if that person was a pink haired gang member from the Southside? Normally, she’d be looking at her in disgust for even daring to sit near her, but she honestly doesn’t have the energy to even think about hating anyone right now. 

So, she sighs, and collapses back down into the booth opposite Toni, who’s looking at her with concern. 

“I’m sorry, again,” Toni starts, “I just grabbed you without thinking.”

“It’s fine, you didn’t mean to,” Cheryl replies.

“So, talk to me, Blossom. I’m not here to judge. How’d you hurt your wrist?”

Cheryl hesitates, but Toni’s waiting patiently, as if she has all the time in the world.

“It’s not so much how I hurt it, it’s who that’s the issue,” she says quietly.

“Someone did that to you?” Toni asks, shocked. 

Cheryl nods, looking around the diner in fear as if her mother’s going to walk in and catch her talking about her injuries.

“Just tell me who, I’ll get me and the boys on them, no questions asked,” Toni says, a hint of pride to her voice as she talks about her fellow gang members.

“I’m afraid it isn’t as easy as that,” Cheryl replies, defeated.

“Why not?”

“You just wouldn’t understand, Toni. The situation I’m in has me rather stuck.”

“Is it someone I know?” Toni asks.

Cheryl shakes her head.

“Please stop asking questions. I fear the more I say the worse it’ll get if they ever find out.”

“Hey, Cheryl, look at me,” Toni says, and Cheryl’s breath catches in her throat when Toni reaches over and puts her hand over hers. “It’s just us. No one can hurt you here, I promise. And if they try, well, they’ve never tried to fight Toni Topaz before,” she says with a wink.

This gets Cheryl to smile at least, before she’s pulling her hand away from Toni’s, too scared that someone would see her holding hands with a girl. Toni eyes their hands separating, but says nothing. 

“Why are you being so kind to me?” Cheryl asks, and it's a genuine question. Apart from Archie, and Jason before he died, no one had taken the time to even see if Cheryl was okay, let alone tell her they’d protect her.

Toni shrugs.

“Like I said, I don’t like seeing people in pain. And you look like you’re in quite a bit of that at the moment. Plus, you’re best friends with Archie Andrews and he said you’re not so bad. If you can be best friends with a good guy like that, then I’m inclined to believe him.”

“I’ll have to thank him for putting in a good word,” Cheryl says, smiling at the thought of her best friend.

“You do that. Now, how about we make a deal?” Toni asks, and Cheryl quirks an eyebrow in response.

“You tell me the secret of who hurt you, and, first of all, I promise not to find and beat said person up, and secondly, I’ll tell you one of my secrets,” Toni says firmly.

Cheryl hesitates.

“I appreciate the effort, but I really don’t know if I can. I’ve never told anyone before, not even Archie, and Jason barely knew either.”

“What have you got to lose?” Toni asks.

Everything, and nothing at the same time, Cheryl thinks. On the one hand, she wants to believe that if she tells Toni, the girl won’t breathe a word of it to her mother. On the other, if Penelope does find out, she’ll surely beat Cheryl within an inch of her life. But Cheryl Blossom was no coward, despite her mother’s hold on her, so really, what did she have to lose by telling one person? Said person who is also in a well-known gang and could probably beat up a grown man let alone an aging woman. 

“Okay. I’ll take your deal,” she says finally. “You promise you won’t tell anyone?” 

“Promise,” Toni says, a seriousness to her tone. “Who did this to you, Cheryl?”

A beat passes before Cheryl whispers out her reply.

“My mother.”

Toni exhales through her nose, anger bubbling inside her.

“Jesus,” she breathes. “Is this the first time?” 

Cheryl shakes her head.

“I don’t even remember the first time, she’s been doing it for so long.”

“I’m so sorry, Cheryl, you don’t deserve that,” Toni says, looking at her with sadness.

“It’s okay, it’s not your fault. Besides, I’m used to it,” Cheryl replies. 

“You shouldn’t be used to it, though, at all,” Toni says.

Cheryl shrugs slightly, looking down at her hands, and then back up at Toni.

“You said you’d tell me a secret?” she asks, hating herself a little for wanting to know more about the girl she’d just opened up to, and also wanting to change the subject.

“I did, and I’ll stick to that. Though if you go telling anyone I’ll get Sweet Pea to break into your house,” Toni chuckles.

“I won’t, as long as you return the favour,” Cheryl responds.

“My lips are sealed. Okay, here’s my big secret. You know I’m from the Southside, but what you don’t know, and not many people do, is that I’m an orphan,” Toni says.

Cheryl’s eyes widen at Toni’s words, but she doesn’t say anything, just gestures for her to continue. 

“My mom and dad died when I was ten,” Toni says, and Cheryl feels her heart crack. “My grandpa founded the Serpents, but they wanted to leave that part of their lives behind, so they moved out of Riverdale before I was born. We had to move back when I was nine because of money troubles, and they ended up getting back into the gang. They died a year later. Serpent mission gone wrong. Bunch of Ghoulies ambushed them and they were two of six people that died that night. So now it’s just me, my grandpa and asshole of an my uncle. And that’s my secret! Too tragic for you to handle, Blossom?” 

Cheryl shakes her head in disbelief. How was Toni so calm talking about something so devastating?

“I’m really sorry. You must miss them,” she says.

Toni nods.

“Yeah, I do, every day, but I’ve had time to come to terms with it. You, though, are in the first stages of grief in regards to your brother, and I know how hard that is. Though losing a twin is unimaginable.”

“Sometimes I feel like I can’t breathe now that he’s gone. Other times I wake up and forget just for a moment and then it hits me like a truck all over again,” Cheryl says quietly.

“You’ve been through a lot, huh? No wonder you’re so bitchy to everyone,” Toni says, trying to lighten the mood a little after everything they’ve talked about. 

“You’re calling me bitchy? Aren’t you the same person who told me I could ‘use getting taken down a few pegs’?” Cheryl replies, smiling.

“Hey, that’s only because you called us scum!” Toni laughs, not mad about the incident that had occurred just a few days before.

“I must apologise for that. Though I haven’t had the chance to judge the rest of your group of ragamuffins, and I’ll never forgive FP Jones for what he did...you...you aren’t so bad, Toni Topaz,” Cheryl says softly.

Toni smiles at her.

“It’s an honour, Cheryl Blossom.”

The conversation takes a slightly darker turn as Cheryl asks Toni a question.

“You said your uncle was an asshole. He never...?” she trails off, gesturing to her wrist.

Toni shakes her head almost straight away.

“No, he’s just a bit of a dick. He kicks me out sometimes when he gets too drunk to be bothered to deal with me, or anyone, really. He’s okay, apart from that. Just means I have to crash at Sweet Pea’s or the Wyrm for a couple days.”

“The Wyrm?” Cheryl asks, confused, though glad to hear that Toni’s uncle had never hurt her.

“Right, forgot you’re not one of us for a second there. The Whyte Wyrm, it’s the bar I work at. My boss lets me crash when my uncle’s had a few too many.”

“My mom drinks, too,” Cheryl says. “A lot more recently, though.”

“Let me guess, it gets worse when she drinks?” Toni asks, ‘it’ being Cheryl’s abuse.

Cheryl nods.

“Yes. I mean, it’s bad enough when she’s sober, but when she’s drunk, well...you can imagine.”

“Can I give you some advice?” Toni asks.

“Sure.”

“Next time she hurts you, and it’s horrible but we both know she will, take pictures. Make sure your phone has a password on it and document everything. That way, if you ever want to get help, you have evidence,” Toni says, her voice firm but kind at the same time.

“You seem to be quite knowledgable, may I ask how you know such information?” Cheryl asks, intrigued, but also filing away what Toni had said into her mind.

“I volunteer at a shelter for domestic abuse victims every so often. I’ve seen a lot of people in your situation, Cheryl, and I’ve seen a lot of them get out of that situation, too. I hope one day the same happens for you,” Toni replies with a smile.

If Cheryl is taken aback that this Southsider she’d called scum helps domestic violence victims, she doesn’t show it. She goes to say something, but is cut off by Toni’s phone chiming.

Toni looks down at her phone, her eyes widening as she reads a text from Sweet Pea.

“Shit,” she mutters. “I’ve gotta go, Sweet Pea needs me to cover his shift at the Wyrm, he’s got an essay due tomorrow that he didn’t finish, the goddamn idiot. Sorry, Cheryl, I'd stay if I could.”

“It’s okay, some things are more important than a conversation with the girl you almost punched the other day,” Cheryl says with a chuckle.

Toni shakes her head with a laugh, standing up to leave.

“I’ll see you around?” she asks, slipping on her leather Serpent jacket. 

Cheryl nods. 

“I mean, probably, we do attend the same school.”

“You know what I meant. If you ever need anyone to talk to then...consider me there,” Toni says. 

“I just might take you up on that,” Cheryl replies, but there’s hesitation in her voice.

Toni looks down at Cheryl who’s still sitting in the booth, and takes a deep breath before she responds.

“Listen, the way I see it, you can forget all about our conversation and pretend it never happened. We can go to school and you can continue to harass me and call me trash to your heart’s content. But I don’t think that’s the real you. Maybe lower your guard for once in your life and we might just have a friendship on our hands. Consider it, Blossom.”

Cheryl doesn’t reply, just nods slightly as she sits feeling a little dumbfounded at what Toni has just said. Toni walks away, giving her a wave, and Cheryl Blossom is left sitting alone in a booth at Pop’s wondering just where the hell Toni Topaz had come from. 

—

Slowly but surely, and it takes time combined with a lot of patience on Toni’s end, the friendship between Cheryl and Toni starts to flourish. 

It starts with Cheryl loaning a pen to Toni in their Math class, their fingers brushing ever so delicately, to shared smiles and glances in the hallway, to the two girls exchanging numbers in the locker room.

Which is how Toni finds herself sitting in the student lounge, with Cheryl, Archie, Sweet Pea and Fangs all sitting around her.

It’s safe to say, the two serpent boys were apprehensive of Toni’s new found friendship with Cheryl, but she’d managed to get them to come around, even going as far as to threaten their friendship if they didn't comply. It’s an empty threat, these boys were her brothers and nothing would change that, but it works nonetheless. 

Archie notices, because of course he does, he’s been Cheryl’s best friend long enough to know she’s not really one for friends, especially not girls, and even more so a girl from the Southside. The change in her demeanour has taken him by surprise, because Cheryl seems lighter these days, like a weight’s been lifted off her shoulders. He wonders if it has anything to do with the pink haired girl sitting opposite him, but doesn’t pry, his happiness for Cheryl actually making a friend overpowering his curiosity. 

Toni, ever the observant, has noticed something too. She sees the way Archie can’t seem to keep his eyes off of Cheryl, the way he visibly gulps as she puts her legs on his lap, the way he flushes when she kisses his cheek. It’s obvious that Archie Andrews has a crush on Cheryl Blossom, and the redheaded girl is completely oblivious. Toni thinks they could be the power couple of Riverdale High, if they took that next step in their relationship, but Cheryl seems to be pushing Archie away and Toni can’t figure out why. They were already best friends, what was stopping them from dating? Toni knows Cheryl only sees Archie as a brother, but Archie obviously doesn’t feel the same way, and she can practically see him pining whenever she looks at him. 

She’s brought out of her thoughts when Cheryl asks her a question.

“How did you fair on the Chem test, TT?”

Toni smiles at the nickname. It had come out of Cheryl’s mouth one day when they had finished class, and after looking at her for an explanation, Cheryl explains that “I simply adore the alliteration of your name, Toni” and it had stuck like glue ever since. It’s things like these that make Toni truly believe that her blossoming friendship with Cheryl was special.

“It was good, I studied my ass off so I hope it pays off,” Toni replies.

A few moments later, Veronica walks in, a wicked grin on her face.

“Miss Blossom, Mr. Andrews, my Southside friends, how are we all doing on this fine day?” she addresses the group.

“You look happy about something Veronica, care to indulge us?” Cheryl asks, as she slides her legs off of Archie’s lap and turns to face her.

“I would indeed. My friend Nick is in town and he’s invited me to a party tonight at the Five Seasons. He told me to invite whoever I want as long as they’re...of a certain social standing, so I thought who better than my two favourite redheads?” Veronica beams.

Toni scoffs.

“‘A certain social standing’? What, is he too afraid to be in the same room as a Southsider? These rich guys and their prejudice, I swear.”

Veronica cringes a little.

“Don’t take it personally, Toni, he’s got an ego the size of Riverdale. Anyway, are you two in?” she asks Cheryl and Archie.

“Sure, why not, it’s been a while since I went to a party. Actually I don’t think I’ve been to one since...” Archie trails off, the words ‘since Jason died’ left hanging in the air. 

Cheryl ignores the stabbing pain in her heart at the thought of her brother and smiles instead.

“Yeah, we’ll be there. Just text us the details!” she says cheerily, though Toni can tell this was just another one of Cheryl’s fake smiles. She’s been witnessing the way Cheryl puts her walls up a lot more now that they actually spend time together. 

She’s not jealous of Cheryl and Archie going to the party, in fact, she hopes they enjoy themselves, but what she couldn’t expect is what tomorrow would bring after a hellish night courtesy of Nick St. Clair.

—

“What do you think, Arch?” Cheryl asks, doing a twirl so he can see the full view of her dress.

Archie bites his lip to try desperately to stop his heart from hammering against his chest.

“You look beautiful, Cher, as always.” 

Cheryl presses a kiss to his cheek and loops her elbow into his as they leave the Andrews’ mansion, Cheryl in a black dress and Archie in a black tux and blazer. 

They arrive at the Five Seasons hand in hand, giving their names to the bouncer who ushers them into the large room that had been rented out for the party. Nick St. Clair had gone all out, it seems, wanting to make his mark on the small town of Riverdale for the short time he was there.

Veronica walks over to them, a big smile on her face, accompanied by a curly haired boy, who’s eyes immediately fall on Cheryl as they walk over.

“So glad you could make it, guys! Nick, this is Cheryl Blossom and Archie Andrews,” Veronica says.

Archie holds his hand out, but drops it after a few seconds as Nick completely disregards him and takes Cheryl’s hand in his own, pressing a kiss to the back of it and eyeing her hungrily.

“It’s a pleasure, Miss Blossom.”

Cheryl struggles not to roll her eyes in disgust at the feeling of Nick’s lips on her hand and his eyes on her body. She was used to attention from men, but it doesn’t make it any less disturbing they way they looked at her sometimes. Instead, she just smiles in response.

“Care for a drink?” Nick asks, and Cheryl nods, not knowing that that one question would spark a series of traumatic events.

The party’s in full swing, and Archie finds himself separated from Cheryl as Veronica takes his hand and leads him to the middle of the room, twirling and dancing around him. It’s nice, he guesses, but there’s only person he wants to dance with, and that person is currently out of view. 

Cheryl, meanwhile, is not feeling good at all. She feels nauseous, she’s got a pounding headache, and there are spots slowly obscuring her vision, which is why she can’t even protest when Nick places a hand on her back and leads her into the elevator just outside the room they were in.

Something is wrong. Something is very wrong.

After what feels like a goddamn lifetime, Archie finally spots the red head of hair he loves so much being led out of the room by none other than Nick St. Clair. He could sense something was off, because Cheryl was stumbling, so he quickly asks Veronica for Nick’s floor and room number and races out of the room as fast as he can. Which isn’t too fast, however, because he’s blocked by the crowd of people dancing, his panic growing with every second. He finally makes it out and practically runs to the elevator, hastily pressing the button for the third floor and then standing back and waiting anxiously. He sprints through the corridor to room 309, and starts pounding his fist against the door. When no answer comes, and with the anxiety still weighing on his chest, Archie makes a decision. He steps back, and kicks as hard as he can, the door swinging open, wood splintering everywhere.

Cheryl doesn’t hear this, she’s lying on her back on a bed that definitely wasn’t hers, her eyes practically rolling into the back of her head and her tongue feeling heavy in her mouth. She’s practically unconscious at this point, but she’s still awake enough to feel a rough hand grip her thigh harshly and hear the sound of a belt being unclipped. She wants to scream, to move, to do anything, but her body is betraying her because she feels like she’s paralysed. 

Archie storms into the room, takes in the sight of Nick touching Cheryl, and his rage is unleashed like a monster breaking out of its cage.

“GET OFF OF HER YOU PIECE OF SHIT!” Archie roars.

Before Nick can even react, Archie’s grabbing him by the back of the neck and throwing him to the floor, pinning him down with his knees and pounding his fists into his face, just like he did when he was breaking the ice of Sweetwater River to get to Cheryl, the reminder only spurring him on further.

There’s blood everywhere and Archie’s pretty sure he heard bones cracking, but the image of Nick on top of Cheryl is fresh in his mind, so he doesn’t stop, keeps punching until Nick’s face is almost unrecognisable.

A groan from Cheryl stops him in his tracks. 

He stands, shaking, as he takes one last look at Nick who’s unmoving now, before he walks over to Cheryl and cradles her face in his bloody hands.

“Cher? Cheryl, can you hear me?!” Archie asks, his voice trembling.

Cheryl doesn’t say anything, she’s fallen into unconsciousness, and Archie is freaking out. What had that scumbag done to his best friend?

To his utter relief, help comes in the way of Veronica Lodge, who had seen Archie leave and followed him soon after, and she enters the room, a gasp escaping her as she takes in the sight of Nick’s body on the floor, Cheryl on the bed, and Archie’s bloody hands. She whips out her phone and calls 911 before Archie can even begin to explain. 

Two ambulances arrive ten minutes later, and in that time, Archie had managed to explain that he had found Nick on top of a passed out Cheryl, and his anger had taken over at the sight. Veronica sympathises immediately of course, the shock that her friend could’ve done this making her almost as angry as Archie.

The paramedics take Cheryl and Nick out of the Five Seasons on separate stretchers, advising Archie to drive behind them so he can not only look after Cheryl, but get his hands checked over too. They didn’t know that one of his hands had only recently been taken out of a cast, so Archie agrees, jumping into his truck and following the ambulances to Riverdale General. 

Archie drives as fast but as safely as he can, not caring about the blood on the steering wheel, and arrives at the hospital, rushing through the doors and walking straight up to the receptionist.

“Hi, I’m here for Cheryl Blossom?” he breathes out shakily.

The receptionist eyes his hands with a raised eyebrow but doesn’t comment, simply tells him that she’s down the hall in room 217.

Archie sprints down the hallway and lands in front of the room, opening the door carefully so as not to scare Cheryl. God knows she’d been through enough tonight. 

He feels the breath leave him at the sight of his best friend laying on the bed, pale, but alive and unharmed, her red hair splaying out behind her head. Doctor Masters is there, inserting an IV into Cheryl’s arm, and he looks up when he hears the door opening.

“Mr. Andrews, I’m glad you’re here. Once I’m done with Miss Blossom’s IV, I’ll be taking a look at those hands of yours,” he says with a smile. 

“What did he do to her?” Archie asks, completely disregarding any mention of his hands. 

“It appears Miss Blossom was roofied. Her bloodwork shows traces of Rohypnol which would explain her unconciousness. You’re lucky you found her when you did,” Doctor Masters replies gravely.

Archie clenches his fists in anger and takes a deep breath out of his nose before he’s walking over and sitting in the chair beside Cheryl’s bed.

“Is she gonna be okay?”

“Yes, I’ve given her some fluids to flush the drug out of her system, hence the IV, and with proper rest she should be awake within the hour. Now, let’s have a look at those hands, shall we?” Doctor Masters asks, gesturing for Archie to come and stand by him.

Archie takes one last look at Cheryl and stands, as Doctor Masters grabs some bandages and asks Archie to hold his hands out. He winces as the doctor wraps them around his knuckles, the white material staining red, but thankfully they weren’t broken. 

Doctor Masters then leaves the room, and Archie collapses back down into the chair, overwhelmed. He feels lost, and angry, and hurt that someone could even dare to do this to his best friend, and he really needs someone to talk to right now, so he pulls his phone out of his pocket and makes a call to the only person he could think of.

Toni Topaz is woken up to the sound of her phone ringing, after hours of tossing and turning on the lumpy mattress on the bed at the Whyte Wyrm, and she groans as the screen lights up her face.

“Andrews, what’s up?” she asks, her voice thick with tiredness. 

“Hey, Toni, can you come to the hospital? Something’s happened to Cheryl and I didn’t know who else to call.”

That’s all Toni needs to hear before she’s up and out of bed, pulling on some sweatpants and a hoodie and wrapping her Serpent jacket around her.

She drives to the hospital on her motorbike, the engine humming beneath her, and dismounts, walking straight to the room that Archie had texted her the number of a few minutes before.

She opens the door and her mouth drops open at the sight before her. Cheryl, laying in the bed, and Archie sitting beside her, his hands wrapped in bloody bandages.

“What the hell happened? Is she okay?” Toni asks, taking the seat next to Cheryl’s bed opposite the one Archie was sitting in.

“She will be. You remember that guy that Veronica told us about, Nick St. Clair?” Archie replies.

Toni nods.

“Yeah, the guy who’s party you went to, right?”

“Yes, well, we were at the party and Nick took Cheryl upstairs to his room. I followed them and found Nick on top of an unconscious Cheryl. Turns out the bastard roofied her and was trying to rape her. I went into a rage as soon as I saw it which is why my hands are like this,” Archie says, raising his hands so Toni can see.

Toni stares at him, anger and pain at what had happened to Cheryl brewing inside her.

“Fucking hell. Poor Cheryl, jesus. If I ever get my hands on that prick he won’t know what’s hit him,” she says, and Archie can hear the rage in her tone.

“It’s okay, I think I punched him enough for now. Sorry I called you so late, though, you were the only person I could think of. Cheryl doesn’t really have any other friends,” Archie says sadly.

Toni shrugs.

“It’s cool, I’m happy to be here for her. I know our friendship is new, but with something like this, she needs a good support system.”

Archie smiles in response, and they talk for a while as they wait for Cheryl to wake up, Toni telling Archie that she’s thinking of joining the Vixens to add to her extra curriculars, which Archie fully supports and tells her to go for it. 

They’re halfway through debating whether they should go into Nick St. Clair’s room to finish the job when a moan from Cheryl cuts off their conversation. 

Cheryl opens her eyes blearily, her head pounding and the lights above her searing her eyes. What the hell was going on? Red hair comes into view, and her vision clears just enough to see Archie standing over her, a worried look on his face.

“Arch?” she croaks out, utterly confused as to what’s going on.

“Hey, Cher. Don’t freak out, but you’re in the hospital right now,” Archie says softly.

Cheryl sits up and rubs her eyes, finally taking in the fact that she was in a hospital bed with an IV attached to her arm.

“What happened? The last thing I remember is I was on a bed and someone was grabbing me,” Cheryl says, shuddering at the memory.

Archie clenches his jaw in response to the memory of Nick touching Cheryl.

“It was Nick, Cher. He roofied you. He tried to rape you,” Archie whispers.

Cheryl feels the tears sting her eyes as she remembers just how awful she‘d felt after Nick had brought her a drink. She doesn’t even register Toni until the pink haired girl is clearing her throat and looking at her with a smile.

“Toni?” Cheryl asks in surprise. “What...what are you doing here?”

“Archie called me. Said you might need a friend. And I consider us that so here I am,” Toni replies.

The shock that someone other than Archie had actually taken the time to see if she was okay is evident on Cheryl’s face, and it hurts Toni’s heart to see such a sight.

“Thank you,” Cheryl whispers, and Toni goes to reply, but is distracted by the door opening and Penelope Blossom marching in, a stony look on her face.

Toni clenches her fist at the sight of the older woman, because she knew exactly what she was capable of, but says nothing as she sees Cheryl shake her head at her, silently begging her to not do anything. Toni complies because she doesn’t want to be the cause of Cheryl getting hurt by her mother, but it angers her nonetheless.

“Archie, would you care to explain why there’s a Southside Serpent in my daughter’s hospital room?” Penelope directs her voice to Archie, who looks at her in surprise.

“Toni is a friend, mother,” Cheryl says quietly, interrupting Archie on whatever he was about to reply.

“Get out. Both of you” Penelope says, her disgust at Toni’s presence written on her face.

Toni opens her mouth to speak, but Archie quickly drags her by the hand and out of the room, unknowingly subjecting Cheryl to more of her mother’s abuse.

Penelope walks over to her daughter when the door shuts, her face inches away from Cheryl’s.

“Just what do you think you’re doing, parading around with Southside scum?” 

“Like I said, mother, she’s a friend, that’s all. She wanted to be here for me…after what happened,” Cheryl responds.

To her absolute and utter devastation, Penelope laughs.

“‘After what happened’? You mean after your poor attempt at attention-seeking went awry? Don’t think I don’t know how starved of love you are, Cheryl, you clearly led that poor boy on and then blamed him when you didn’t get your own way.”

“Are you serious? He roofied me, he literally drugged me so he could try and rape me!” Cheryl says in desperation.

Penelope looks at her coldly before grabbing Cheryl and wrapping her hand around her IV, pressing the needle painfully into her arm.

Cheryl inhales sharply but doesn’t say anything as she tries to move her arm out of her mother’s grip, but it’s no use, she was still weak from the drug in her system.

“You should watch your words carefully, Cheryl. Now, I’ve spoken to the St. Clair’s about this...ordeal, and they’ve agreed to pay us a handsome sum to make this all go away. Do I make myself clear?” Penelope asks, venom dripping from her voice.

When Cheryl doesn’t answer, too frozen in shock to do anything, she growls in frustration before she’s gripping the IV and yanking it out of Cheryl’s arm. The needle clatters to the floor as Cheryl cries out, blood dripping down her elbow and pain shooting up her arm.

“I said, do I make myself clear?” Penelope hisses.

“Yes, mother,” Cheryl whispers defeatedly, and with that, Penelope stalks out of the room, the door banging shut behind her.

Cheryl lets her tears fall just like the blood that was trickling out of her elbow, as she lays back in the bed. How could her mother take hush money from the St. Clair’s after knowing their son tried to rape her? She’s never felt more lost than she did now.

Toni walks back into the room, her eyebrows shooting up in shock as she sees Cheryl crying with blood covering her arm.

“What the hell, Cheryl, what did she do to you?” she asks with concern.

Cheryl shakes her head, the words stuck in her throat as Toni sighs and presses the button next to her bed to call the doctor back into her room.

Doctor Masters walks in a few minutes later, the same expression of shock on his face that Toni had, as he walks over to the bed and presses a cloth to Cheryl’s arm to stop the bleeding. He doesn’t question her, just gets to work on applying a new IV, and then he’s gone as quickly as he came in. No doubt her mother had spun a story that Cheryl had taken her IV out, another lie spilling from her lips.

At the same time, Archie is talking to Sheriff Keller about what had occurred. For some unknown reason, he’s told that Nick wasn’t pressing charges, and even if he tried to, his alcohol level was way above the legal limit, so anything he says wouldn't hold up in court, despite his broken nose and Archie’s bloody hands.

Archie sighs in relief at these words, because he really didn’t need a criminal record, but he’s angered when he learns that no charges were being pressed against Nick, either.

“He tried to rape my best friend, Sheriff, and you’re telling me he’s just going to get away with it?” he asks, enraged.

“I’m sorry, son, it appears the St. Clair’s and Mrs. Blossom have handled this privately, there’s nothing I can do,” Sheriff Keller says, and Archie scoffs before he’s walking away back to room 217.

He enters to find Toni sitting in the chair beside the bed, and Cheryl, who looks a lot more with it now, wiping blood off of her arm and hand.

“Cher, you’re bleeding, what happened?” he asks.

“It’s nothing, Arch, I accidentally pulled my IV out, but I’m fine now,” Cheryl lies, but she knows it’ll reassure the redheaded boy.

She doesn’t miss the way Toni looks at her, knowing she’s lying, but Archie does, as he sits down with a smile, not knowing what Penelope Blossom had done to her daughter.

“Remind me never to go to a party with Veronica Lodge’s friends ever again” he says with a chuckle, and despite all that’s happened tonight, Cheryl and Toni find themselves laughing along with him. 

—

It’s been a week since the incident with Nick had occurred, the boy going back to New York with well deserved injuries but no legal punishment, and in that time, Cheryl and Toni have grown even closer.

Toni had stayed with Cheryl after Fred and Mary Andrews had come to collect Archie and take him home for the night, because truthfully she had nothing better to do than care for the beautiful redhead in the bed beside her. 

She doesn’t know it, but that night, and her decision to stay, would be the turning point in their relationship.

They had texted all night after Cheryl was released and Toni went back to the Whyte Wyrm, Toni comforting Cheryl after her traumatic experience, and in turn, Cheryl comforting Toni after she had learned that she had been kicked out again. It’s a surprise, then, that Cheryl turns up to school the next morning, another fake smile on her face and dark circles under her eyes, but their all night conversation had been cathartic for them both, and Toni would do it all over again even if it meant she was exhausted by the time morning came.

It appears Cheryl Blossom is full of surprises, because she corners Toni at her locker, Archie behind her, and tells her that her father’s will was finally being read and asking if she’d like to accompany both redheads to the reading. Toni is taken aback, but agrees, more out of curiosity than anything, but also because she feels it’s her duty to be by Cheryl’s side more than ever right now. 

So, Toni finds herself sitting next to Cheryl in the first row of chairs that had been placed in the living room of Thornhill, a sea of redheads behind her, her pink hair sticking out like a sore thumb.

The Coopers are there too, even Polly, though Cheryl doesn’t know when she was released from the Sisters of Quiet Mercy, just knows that she’s back now and that was it. She feels for her, she does, but she’d never really got along with her even when Jason was alive, so she pays her no attention as she waits anxiously for her father’s will to be read. A moment that would surely change everything for the young redhead.

At the sight of Toni entering the front door of Thornhill, with Archie beside her, Penelope’s nostrils had flared in anger, but she had said nothing, there were too many people around for her to make a scene, but Cheryl would surely feel the force of her anger once the will reading was over.

The man who was obligated to read the will, Mr. Lazenby, is standing at the front, waiting for the chatter to die down so he could begin. Cheryl’s sitting in the middle of Archie and Toni, her mother on Archie’s left, so she thankfully doesn’t see when Cheryl reaches her hand out to grip Toni’s as Mr. Lazenby clears his throat and starts to talk.

Toni doesn’t even hear him start his sentence, she’s too busy staring at her and Cheryl’s conjoined hands, her heart skipping a beat as their skin had touched. 

Shit. When the hell did that happen? 

It’s no secret that Toni finds Cheryl beautiful, hell, she’d even called her pretty the first time they’d met, but as far as she was concerned, her feelings were strictly platonic. But then why was her heart beating so fast as Cheryl gripped her hand, and why did she feel the need to run her thumb over her knuckles to comfort her? Toni thinks maybe she’s reading into their friendship, that just because she had found out that Cheryl wasn’t at all the bitchy person she wanted everyone to think she was, that didn’t mean she was catching feelings. But would it be such a bad thing if she was? She figures she’ll do some soul searching later when she’s back in her trailer, away from, and she could admit this to herself, the most stunning girl she’d ever seen. She’s brought out of her thoughts as Mr. Lazenby continues talking.

“...therefore, I am giving half of my wealth to anyone that can prove that even one drop of Blossom blood runs through their veins.”

Hal Cooper’s face is practically beaming as he hears these words, and Alice Cooper rolls her eyes and decides that that’s all her family needs to hear as she drags her husband and two daughters out of the room.

A few of the Blossom relatives leave too, clearly getting what they wanted, but some stay, eager to hear what else Clifford had left his family.

“Finally,” Mr. Lazenby continues, “the other half of my fortune will go to Cheryl and Jason when they turn eighteen. Until then, I leave the money in the good hands of my wife, Penelope.”

Penelope has a look on her face that Cheryl can’t quite read, but she’s distracted when Archie nudges her shoulder.

“You’re gonna be rich, Cher,” he whispers with a wink, and Cheryl smiles at him in response, her hand still firmly grasped in Toni’s.

Archie notices their interlaced hands, because of course he does, and he can’t help the jealousy that courses through him as he wishes Cheryl was holding his hand right now instead of Toni’s.

The will reading finishes, and the Blossom family file out of the room, leaving Cheryl alone with Penelope, Archie and Toni.

It doesn’t last long though, because her mother is looking at Toni with a deathly glare, so Toni takes that as her cue to leave, her hand feeling empty now that Cheryl wasn’t holding it. She seriously had some thinking to do.

Archie follows, giving Cheryl a hug and Penelope a swift goodbye, leaving the two Blossom women alone in their house of horrors.

It’s no surprise that as soon as the door bangs shut, Penelope is on the warpath once again. She grabs Cheryl by her shirt, pulling her in close, their faces inches away from each other.

“You aren’t getting a single cent of that money, do you hear me, Cheryl?” Penelope practically spits.

“What do you mean, mother, Daddy left that money for me!” Cheryl says, fear in her voice.

“I don’t care what that buffoon Lazenby has to say, that money is going to me and I don’t want to hear another word about it!” Penelope replies, her raised voice making Cheryl flinch before she’s throwing her to the ground just like she has countless times before.

Cheryl lands on her back, and she doesn’t even have time to recover before her mother is pressing her heel into her ankle painfully, the wood floor digging into her foot as the pressure increases.

Cheryl whines but doesn’t move, so caught off guard that she was being punished once again for doing nothing but inheriting money. Her mother truly hates her entire existence, it seems.

“You listen to me loud and clear, Cheryl Blossom. You are my daughter and what I say goes. You don’t deserve any of that money with the way you tarnish our family name with your deviant thoughts. I won’t hear another word about it, do you get that, you insolent child?” Penelope asks, digging her heel even further into Cheryl’s ankle.

Cheryl just nods, the tears streaming down her face, and Penelope scoffs at her before releasing her foot and stalking out of the room and up the stairs.

There isn’t even a word to cover just how helpless Cheryl feels in that moment.

The next day, she limps through the hallway of Riverdale High, walking up to Archie and Toni who are waiting for her. She’s wearing jeans and long socks to cover the large bruise on her ankle, but she can’t hide the limp, and Archie’s brows furrow as he sees her hobble over to them.

“Cher, why are you limping?” he asks, worry lacing his voice.

Cheryl shrugs.

“I was practicing some choreography last night and twisted my ankle, it’s nothing to worry about, Arch.”

Archie nods and asks her if she’s ready to go to class, but he’s interrupted by Toni, who’s been staring at Cheryl's ankle this whole time.

“Cheryl, I need some makeup tips, come with me to the bathroom?” she asks innocently, and Cheryl looks at her in confusion but nods, leaving Archie alone in the hallway as they walk away.

Toni enters the bathroom before Cheryl, quickly checking the stalls to see if they were empty, before she’s turning around and walking up to the redhead, their bodies almost touching with how close they were. The tension could be cut with a knife, but Cheryl doesn’t say anything as Toni looks at her in the eyes before she’s kneeling down and lifting the hem of her jeans up. The black and blue bruise contrasts sharply against Cheryl’s skin, the yellow light of the bathroom making it look somehow even worse than it was, and Cheryl sees Toni take a sharp intake of breath through her nose as she looks at it. Her breath hitches as Toni runs her thumb gently over the bruise to assess the damage, and Cheryl can’t ignore the shudder that goes up her spine at the feeling of Toni touching her skin. She quickly blames it on the pain before any other thoughts can creep into her mind.

Toni stands, returning to her previous position in front of Cheryl, and sees that her bottom lip is trembling.

“Cheryl…” she starts, but she’s cut off by a shake of the girl’s head.

“It’s fine. I’m fine,” Cheryl says, but her tone of voice is doing nothing to reassure Toni. 

Without even thinking, and because she can’t find the words that would do Cheryl justice right now, Toni surges forward and envelopes her in a tight hug.

Cheryl freezes against her, but a moment passes and then she’s wrapping her arms around the pink haired girl and burying her head in her shoulder.

Toni rubs a hand up and down Cheryl’s back, and she can feel she’s shaking against her, trying to hold in her tears.

“Hey, I’ve got you, Cher, I’m not going anywhere.”

The nickname stumbles out of Toni’s mouth before she can even help it, but it feels right in that moment and it’s exactly what Cheryl needs.

They break apart, Cheryl hastily wiping her eyes, and then they’re smiling at each other shyly.

“Guessing you’ve never really hugged a girl before, huh?” Toni says teasingly, trying to lighten the mood.

Cheryl actually laughs lightly at this as she shakes her head.

“The only people I’ve hugged are Jason and Archie, and they’re way too muscly for my liking.”

“Well, if you ever need a hug from someone who isn’t all abs then you’ve got me,” Toni says with a soft smile.

The bell rings, breaking the tension that had been there since they walked into the bathroom, and the two girls make their way to class, Cheryl still limping, but feeling lighter after her embrace with Toni.

In the months to come, Cheryl and Toni would look back on that hug and realise it was the start of everything.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> as always i’m on twitter @topazandrews if you want to keep up with when i’m posting :)


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cheryl and Toni’s relationship progresses further until a significant moment leads to multiple confrontations and secrets being told.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this has taken me a very long time to upload i’m sorry! though if anyone is still hanging on to this fic i think you will be satisfied, even if it is a little shorter than the first two. enjoy!
> 
> tw for abuse and brief mentions of homophobia, suicide and sexual assault

_The icy water of Sweetwater River seeps into her lungs as she screams; Jason Blossom’s cold, dead eyes staring deep into her soul._

_She feels a hand gripping her thigh and hears the sound of a belt being unclipped as Nick St. Clair hovers above her._

_“You disgust me with your deviance, Cheryl!” Penelope Blossom yells, as the belt strikes her back one, two, three times._

Cheryl wakes up with a violent scream, sweat soaking her body as the vivid nightmare comes to an end.

She lets her breathing regulate before she’s standing shakily and wrapping a robe around her body, grabbing her phone and putting it in her pocket. She doesn’t know that that simple action would save her a lot of pain as the night unfolds.

She pads down the stairs quietly, and as she goes into the kitchen to get a glass of water, she freezes in horror as her mother stands waiting for her.

“You woke me up, Cheryl,” Penelope says in a low voice, but it’s menacing instead of comforting.

Cheryl gulps.

“I’m sorry, mother, I had a nightmare. I didn’t mean to wake you.”

Penelope exhales through her nose, and it’s clear she’s furious. 

She walks over to Cheryl and grabs her wrist tightly, dragging her through the house and out of the back door into the large estate where the barns were.

Cheryl has no choice but to follow, her mother’s grip around her wrist painfully tight, and her feet are aching by the time they get to the barn because she’s barefoot walking along the harsh ground. 

Penelope pushes her into the first barn they get to, flicking the light on and giving her a deathly glare.

“You’ll stay in here for the night. Maybe this will give you time to reflect after disturbing me. You are such a disappointment, Cheryl,” she says coldly, and with that, she’s shutting the door of the barn and clicking the padlock shut, leaving Cheryl cold and alone, her only company being barrels of maple syrup.

Cheryl sinks down onto the dirty floor and leans back against one of the barrels, already shaking from how cold it was. She brings her knees up to her chest and lowers her head on top of them, desperately trying to fight the tears that were threatening to spill.

That’s when it hits her that she can’t breathe.

She was used to panic attacks, but this one pummels into her with full force, and before she knows it she’s hyperventilating and rocking back and forth, her mother calling her a disappointment ringing in her ears.

She tries to think of Archie, his red hair, his smile, his strong arms, the scar on his forehead, because that usually works to bring her out of the panic attack, but she finds herself drawn to completely different thoughts instead.

Toni. Her pink hair, her soft brown eyes, her plump lips that were oh so kissable, the harshness of her leather jacket, the way her brown skin shines in the sun, and the feeling of safety she had felt when they hugged.

She tries to push them away, to get rid of the “deviance” as her mother liked to call it, but the sad thing was it was working. 

She feels the air enter her lungs and she takes a deep breath and wipes away her tears, leaning back even further into the wooden barrel behind her, her panic attack finally coming to its end.

Cheryl hates herself, to say the least. Why did her thoughts of Toni have to be the only thing that had kept her sane? She doesn’t even want to think about it, how she had grown closer to Toni in the last months, or how she had quickly seen that maybe the Southside wasn’t so bad after all. 

She pushes all thoughts of a certain pink haired girl out of her mind, because as pathetic as she felt it was, if she did have feelings for Toni, she certainly couldn’t act on them, her mother would surely kill her. 

So, Cheryl feels hopeless, her back aching as she sits on the cold ground of the barn, wondering just how long she would have to wait before Penelope let her out and she could sleep in her own bed again. This was one of her mother’s rarer punishments, she hadn’t been locked in here for a good few years, but what she doesn’t realise is that her torture wouldn’t last the whole night at all.

A vibration of her phone in her pocket is the first sign that maybe things were actually going to be okay.

It’s a pointless Instagram notification, but Cheryl gasps as she realises she wasn’t completely shut off from the outside world. She’s calling Toni’s number before she even has time to think about why she shouldn’t.

Toni picks up on the second ring.

“Hey, you’re calling late. Everything okay?”

“Toni, I-I need your help. My mother locked me in one of the barns and I’m only wearing a nightgown. I’m cold, TT, I’m so cold and...I’m scared,” Cheryl says, ending her sentence with a whisper.

“Give me fifteen minutes,” Toni replies, and the call ends, leaving Cheryl alone once more.

She doesn’t know if Toni will actually come, but she texts her to tell her there’s a spare key under a rock by the back gate and that she’s in the barn nearest the house.

Soon enough, she hears a loud crack as the padlock is broken and she looks up in surprise to see the barn door swinging open, Toni Topaz standing in front of her, a crowbar in her hands.

She’s on her feet and rushing towards the pink haired girl, embracing her tightly before Toni can even speak.

“You came,” Cheryl whispers into her shoulder.

“Of course I did, Cher, I told you I would,” Toni says, and it’s only then that she realises Cheryl is shivering against her. “Jesus, you’re freezing, here, I brought you some clothes.”

They break apart, and Toni reaches into her backpack and pulls out a pair of sweatpants and a hoodie. Cheryl’s heart flutters at the kindness the shorter girl is giving her, as she takes the clothes and puts them on, disregarding her robe in favour of the warm hoodie.

“You wanna get outta here?” Toni asks, extending her hand for Cheryl to take.

Cheryl looks at Toni’s hand apprehensively, because she knows the only place she could possibly take her is her trailer on the Southside. Toni seems to just know what’s going through the redhead’s mind, because she keeps her hand extended and takes a step closer.

“Do you trust me?” Toni asks softly, and Cheryl’s berating herself as she nods, because she really, really shouldn’t be thinking about following a Southsider who she’d grown to like, but what choice does she have? She can’t stay in this freezing barn all night, she’d surely go mad before the sun came up.

“Come on then, Blossom, follow me.”

They sneak out of the barn, checking that all the lights of Thornhill were off and that Penelope wasn’t awake, and walk through the back gate, Sweet Pea’s truck parked across from them.

This is yet another thing that makes Cheryl’s heart melt, the thought that Toni had chosen to not bring her motorcycle in case Cheryl would be too scared to ride it. She thinks she’d only mentioned her fear of them to Toni once, and still, she had taken the time to remember that.

Toni drives away from Thornhill, the buildings slowly becoming more dilapidated as they make their way across the divide between the North and Southside.

They make it to Sunnyside Trailer Park, and Toni gets out of the driver’s seat and makes her way around the truck to the passenger side, holding out her hand for Cheryl to take as she opens the door.

Cheryl obliges, and finds herself standing outside one of the trailers, her nervousness increasing with every step.

“Is your uncle home?” she asks shyly, dreading to think what the older man would say if he saw a Blossom enter his home.

Toni nods.

“Yeah, but he won’t hear us, I’m pretty sure a tank could come through the trailer and he still wouldn’t wake up,” Toni says with a light laugh.

Cheryl nods as she makes her way up the steps of the trailer, still hand in hand with Toni, and enters the small space.

It’s about the size of her bedroom, honestly, but it feels homely, more warmth radiating from it than Thornhill could ever dream of.

Toni beckons her into a room down the hall, and she enters, looking around curiously. There’s a double bed taking up most of the space, and a dresser next to it, but what catches Cheryl’s eye is the copious amount of pictures plastered to the walls. There’s a lot of Sweet Pea and Fangs, some with Toni in, some without, and there are pictures of other members of the Serpents too, their leather jackets hanging proudly around their shoulders. There are also pictures of their small town, a particularly beautiful shot of Pop’s neon lights grabbing her attention, and Cheryl stares in awe at how clearly talented Toni was. She simply has to make Toni aware of her thoughts.

“Your pictures are stunning, TT,” she says, and Toni smiles at her in response.

“They’re okay, I guess, it’s just a hobby right now.”

“Don’t you think it could be something more?” Cheryl asks, moving over to lie down on the bed as Toni beckons her to join her. 

Toni shrugs.

“Maybe one day.”

They’re laying face to face now, and Toni feels her heart beat erratically as Cheryl looks into her eyes. She decides to just ask her what happened instead of avoiding the subject, knowing that talking about it would provide some comfort.

“Why did your mom put you in the barn, Cheryl?”

Cheryl swallows thickly.

“I had a nightmare and woke her up.” 

And it really was as simple as that. Her mother had punished her for something completely out of her control.

“I’m so sorry,” Toni says, shaking her head in disbelief.

That’s all she needs to say before she’s pulling Cheryl into her arms and holding her close, the girl's head resting on her chest. It’s intimate, but Cheryl’s fear that someone would walk in on them is drowned out by just how safe she felt in Toni’s arms.

They fall asleep soon after, Toni running her fingers through Cheryl’s hair as she drifts off under the warmth of the covers.

They had decided that Toni would take Cheryl back before her mother woke up, so her alarm rings at 5:45, and Toni groans as she wipes the tiredness out of her eyes and moves to turn it off. It provides somewhat difficult, because she’s still tangled together with Cheryl, and Toni feels her heart soar as she realises Cheryl felt safe enough to lay with her while they slept. She also thinks this is probably the first time the redhead has ever cuddled anyone in bed, and she feels honoured that she could be that person. She tries to push away just how fast her feelings for Cheryl were growing, because the thought of spending every morning like this with her, safe in each other’s arms, quickly pops into Toni’s mind, but she brushes it away, because she knows that’s just not an option. 

She detaches herself from Cheryl carefully, making her way to the bathroom, and when she’s done, she finds her sitting up in bed, looking slightly out of place in sweatpants that were too short and a hoodie that wasn’t branded. 

“Hey,” Toni says simply, leaning against the door frame.

Cheryl can’t help but roam her eyes over Toni’s body, her tan legs exposed underneath the shorts she was wearing, and her abs peeking out under her top. Toni doesn’t miss it, simply smirks as she waits for Cheryl to reply.

“Hey, yourself,” Cheryl says with a yawn.

“I really don’t want to take you back to that awful place, Cher,” Toni says sadly.

“I’m afraid we have no choice, TT. But I’ll be okay. You’re a text away, right?” Cheryl asks hopefully.

Toni nods immediately, a smile on her face.

“You know it, Blossom.”

They end up getting back to Thornhill just before the clock hits 6AM, and Toni escorts Cheryl back to the barn, taking the hoodie and sweatpants from her as Cheryl slips her robe back on. 

They hug again in the doorway of the barn and bid each other goodbye, Toni promising to see her at school in a few hours, before she leaves, her heart heavy at the thought of Cheryl all alone in the cold.

They can’t do anything about the broken padlock, and Cheryl’s hoping desperately that her mother won’t care enough to notice that it had been broken, and thankfully, after about half an hour of waiting, Penelope opens the door with no comment, just stalks back to the house leaving Cheryl to follow in silent surprise and relief.

As soon as she’s back in her room she showers, the hot water feeling glorious on her cold skin, and as she puts some clothes on to prepare for the school day, she can’t help but wish she was back on the Southside, cosy and warm in Toni’s bed.

Oh, how things change. Cheryl Blossom would never have thought that a pink haired girl from the Southside of Riverdale would come into her life and turn her world upside down. 

—

They don’t tell Archie what happened. Cheryl would honestly rather die than admit to her best friend that her mother was abusing her, and it makes her heart ache that she’s keeping such a secret from him, so he stays oblivious as ever, but still being a driving force in Cheryl's life that was keeping her together. But now, Toni had entered the equation, too.

She doesn’t know when she first started to like her, maybe it was as early as their conversation in Pop’s, but Cheryl was done lying to herself and had accepted that her feelings for Toni were more than just platonic. She could only hope that the other girl felt the same way, but in reality, it didn’t matter, because her mother’s looming presence in her life would put a stop to anything before it had even started. 

At the same time, Archie was still pining, and truthfully, he was feeling a little left out these days. Toni was pretty much always waiting for Cheryl at her locker after class if she wasn’t with Sweet Pea and Fangs, and he was slowly realising that what was once a duo, had now turned into a trio. He likes Toni, he does, but he can’t help but feel a little jealous every time Cheryl chooses to spend time with her instead of him. They had even started hugging as a greeting now, though when that first started he didn’t know, and to say the rest of the school body were surprised to see Cheryl Blossom hugging a Southsider would be an understatement. Her and Archie still walk the halls hand in hand, but it’s not for as long now, because as soon as she sees Toni she’s letting go and standing by her side instead. 

What happens two days after the barn incident only makes him feel worse.

They had been in the student lounge, talking about homework or something that Archie wasn’t really paying attention to, when Toni asks Cheryl a question.

“Cher,” she starts, and there’s that use of the nickname again, the one that had been reserved for Archie before she came along, “are you free tonight?”

“I am, TT, why do you ask?” Cheryl responds curiously.

“There’s a new movie that just came out at the Bijou, it’s called Love, Simon. Wanna go see it?” Toni asks, and she won’t admit that her heart races at the thought of spending some alone time with Cheryl.

“Sure, why not? Arch, are you in?” 

Archie’s about to say yes, but he stops when Toni grimaces and bites her lip.

“Um, I was actually thinking it could just be me and you. You know, like a girls’ night,” Toni says quietly, somewhat afraid of being rejected.

Archie feels his heart sink, but doesn’t comment on it. Instead, he just smiles weakly.

“Right. Of course. You girls have fun, and don’t miss me too much, Cher.”

Cheryl scoffs.

“I always miss you, Arch, you’re my best friend, dummy,” she says, and her words should feel nice, but Archie is still craving something more than a best friendship, which is unfortunately something that he’ll never get. Not that he knows the reason why.

“In response to your question, Toni, I’d love to go to the movies with you,” Cheryl says with a genuine smile.

“Great! Meet me after class?” Toni asks as the bell rings signalling it was time for them to part ways.

They meet at Cheryl’s car when school is over, and as they drive to the Bijou, Toni finds herself almost squirming as the temptation to reach across the console and rest her hand on Cheryl’s becomes almost too much to bear. She didn’t know that Cheryl was feeling the exact same thing.

As they go to purchase tickets and popcorn for the movie, Toni feels her heart almost ache with longing that this could be something more than just two friends watching a movie. It was so cliché, wishing this could be their first date, but she settles for what it is, because Cheryl had told her she was straight, though she was starting to think that wasn’t entirely true. If she wasn’t, then it would explain why she had pushed Archie away all this time, and also the way she’s been acting around Toni recently. The longing looks, the little touches, the hugs, even the nicknames were all luring Toni into feeling that maybe what she felt for Cheryl wasn’t completely one-sided.

Halfway through the movie, Cheryl starts silently crying at something Simon’s mom had said, and Toni swallows her fear and reaches over to interlace her hand with Cheryl’s.

They look at each other for a brief second, eyes locking in hesitation, before they turn back to the movie, and part of Toni pretends that it’s just them in the theatre, that this is their hundredth date and they can go back to a house that didn’t have an abusive mother and a senile old lady living in it.

They spend the rest of the movie holding hands, neither commenting on it, just letting it be, and by the time it’s over, it feels wrong for their hands to be empty as they let go. 

Cheryl seems to have found some confidence after their hand holding, because as they get back to her car, she asks Toni a question that has her almost gobsmacked.

“Come back to mine?” Cheryl asks, trying to put on a brave face as they sit across from each other.

“What about your mom?” Toni asks in response, because the last time she’d been there she hadn’t exactly been met with a warm welcome.

“She’s away for a few days. Something about salvaging the reputation of the family company. Come on, TT, I don’t want this day to end just yet,” Cheryl says, and Toni must have gone soft because she finds herself agreeing almost immediately.

Cheryl beams as she drives back to Thornhill, and as they get into the house, they quietly walk past Nana Rose and her nurse in the living room, not wanting either of them to report back to Penelope that there was a Southside Serpent in her home.

They get to Cheryl’s room, and Toni is impressed, to say the least. She lets out a low whistle as she walks in, taking in the queen sized bed and the artwork on the walls. They’re all old paintings that she doesn’t recognise, but they match the gothic tone of the house, giving off a slightly creepy vibe. If she’s honest, it felt cold. There were no personal pictures, not even of Jason, and Toni wonders if Penelope was so controlling that she even had a say in what went in Cheryl’s bedroom or not. Something about that thought makes her wish she could get Cheryl her own trailer so she could decorate it how she wanted.

“I’m not gonna lie, Cher, your house is pretty creepy. How do you sleep in a place like this?” Toni asks honestly.

Cheryl shrugs.

“I’ve lived here my whole life, I guess I’m used to it.”

“I guess so,” Toni mutters. “I’m sorry, this is just a bit weird for me. I’m so used to having pictures on my wall I can’t fathom anyone else not having any.”

“Can I show you something?” Cheryl asks.

Toni nods, and Cheryl reaches under her bed, pulling out what looks like a large scrapbook. She beckons Toni to come and sit with her on the bed and Toni obliges, sitting down on the bed that’s practically the same size as her whole room in her trailer.

She hands Toni the book, flipping open the first page, and Toni is greeted with four pictures of Cheryl and Archie staring up at her.

“This is what I’d put on my wall if my mother let me. She thinks photos ‘degrade’ the worth of the house or something stupid like that. I haven’t shown this to anyone before, not even Archie,” Cheryl whispers.

Toni thumbs through the pages, taking in what appeared to be the history of Cheryl Blossom’s life. There are a lot of pictures of her and Jason, especially when they were younger, but almost all of them included Archie. It seemed they really were inseparable since babies. There’s selfies, and candids, some just of Archie, some just of Cheryl and some of them both. But what sticks out to Toni the most is just how happy they looked. She’s always thought Cheryl’s smile was beautiful, and she was happy that Archie could bring it out of her so much. If only he knew what really went on in his best friend’s life. There’s also sketches that Cheryl has done, and Toni thinks she was just as talented as Cheryl had once called her about her photography.

“Why did you show me this, Cheryl? I mean it’s beautiful, but why me?” Toni finally asks, closing the book and placing it next to her on the bed.

Cheryl shrugs.

“I don’t know. I trust you, I guess. You’re one of the only people who doesn’t think I’m some cold, heartless monster, and I just wanted to prove that to you further.”

Toni smiles in response.

“Well, thanks. I trust you too, for the record. And I’m really happy you felt comfortable enough to show me your pictures. Since you did, I guess I could share something with you too.”

Cheryl raises an eyebrow as Toni pulls two photographs out of the inside pocket of her leather serpent jacket. She holds them out for Cheryl to see, and Cheryl looks at her in shock as a miniature Toni smiles up at her.

“That’s me when I was five,” she says, pointing to the first photograph. “And this,” she pulls out the second photo, “is my parents. Maria and Anthony Topaz,” Toni says proudly.

“Well I can see where you got your good looks from,” Cheryl says with a wink as Toni grins. “Tell me about them?” she asks as she sits against the headboard and pats the bed beside her, Toni moving to sit next to her.

“They were the best parents ever,” Toni sighs, leaning back against the headboard. “One thing I remember about my mom is just how funny she was. She always used to cheer me up and make me laugh whenever I hurt myself or was feeling down. And my dad, well, he was the biggest softie around, even being in a gang. He used to make us waffles and bacon every morning without fail, even if he’d been on a Serpent mission all night, and he used to kiss my forehead and tell me he loved me every day before I went to school.”

“You’re a credit to them both, Toni, please know that,” Cheryl says, a little emotional after what Toni had told her. Part of it was because she feels for the pink haired girl, having lost such loving parents at such a young age, and the other part was because she ached for her mother to treat her the same way, but she knows it’ll never happen. 

“Thanks, Cher. Hey, what’s in that door over there?” Toni asks, pointing to the door in the corner of the room.

“That’s my closet, silly,” Cheryl says with a laugh.

“You have a whole room for your clothes?” Toni asks in disbelief. “Now this I need to see.”

Cheryl shakes her head with a smile as she gets up off the bed and walks over to her closet, opening the doors and walking in, gesturing for Toni to follow her. Toni walks in, mouth agape at just the sheer number of clothes Cheryl had, and the overwhelming amount of red in the space.

Cheryl’s busy looking for a certain top she thought would look gorgeous on Toni, when she’s caught off guard by a question.

“Okay, so, if you had to date anyone, who would it be?” Toni asks as innocently as possible.

Cheryl stares at her.

“I don’t know, I never really think about that stuff.”

“Come on, Cher, not even one person? Okay, how about this. What do you look for in a partner?”

“Well, I suppose they would have to be kind, and loving. I’d want them to have a good set of morals, too. If they made me laugh then that would be an added bonus, and I’d like someone who cares about their education and has goals in life. Oh, and if I found them good looking then that’s just the icing on the cake,” Cheryl says, a bit nervously. Toni notes the pronouns used, but doesn’t mention it.

“Okay, now ask me,” she says, stepping one step closer to Cheryl in the small space of the closet.

“Alright, if I must. If you could date anyone, who would it be?” Cheryl asks.

What happens next makes the whole world turn on its axis.

“You,” Toni says bluntly, stepping even closer and taking Cheryl’s hand in hers. 

“Wh-what did you say?” Cheryl whispers, because she was sure she had gone mad. Toni did not just say she wanted to date her, did she? Maybe she was in a coma after the incident at Sweetwater River and had imagined her very existence, and this was all some sort of dream, she thinks.

However, this was not fantasy, and Toni takes one final step towards Cheryl until there’s barely any space between them.

“I said, if I could date one person, then it would be you, Cheryl. And I think, or at least part of me hopes this is true, that you feel the same way. Do you think I haven’t noticed the way you look at me? For a straight girl, you’re very bad at hiding the fact that you’re into girls.”

Well, shit. She’d been caught. But was that such a bad thing? Here Toni was, standing not even an inch in front of her, confessing that she liked her as more than a friend. Who was she to deny such a thing? She doesn’t even have the chance to respond before Toni says three words that make her heart stop.

“Don’t freak out,” Toni whispers, before she cups her face with one hand and rests the other on her hip, leaning in to kiss her softly. 

Cheryl almost groans at the feeling of their lips connecting, because she’s been dreaming of this moment probably since she’d first laid eyes on Toni, but she refrains, kissing her back just as softly, the kiss hesitant as they both explore the feeling for the first time. 

It quickly gets heated however, as both girls realise this is what they’ve wanted for so long, and Toni squeezes Cheryl’s hip as she backs her up against the wall of the closet, attacking her lips hungrily. Cheryl revels in the feeling of Toni’s lips on hers, the pure passion that was radiating from them both, but things just don’t seem to go right for Cheryl Blossom, because she’s suddenly hearing her mother’s voice in her ear calling her deviant, and feeling the sting of her hand across her face.

She presses a hand against Toni’s chest, pushing her gently away from her, and they’re both panting as they break apart.

Toni goes to smile at Cheryl, but stops short when she sees a tear rolling down her cheek. 

“What’s wrong?” 

“We can’t do this,” Cheryl murmurs, and her heart is breaking as the words leave her mouth. “I don’t...I don’t like you like that, Toni.”

“What? You kissed me back, Cheryl, what are you talking about?” Toni asks in shock.

“It was a momentary lapse in sanity,” Cheryl lies. “I think you should go.”

“Right. I should’ve known. Never fall for a Blossom, huh, isn’t that what they say? Guess I was just another one of your straight girl fantasies. I’ll see you around, Cheryl. Or maybe I won’t,” Toni says angrily, but hurt at the same time too.

She walks out of the closet in a rage, stomping out of Cheryl’s room and down the stairs, and as soon as Cheryl hears the front door of Thornhill slam, she’s sliding down against the wall and sobbing into her hands. She stays like that for a long time, her heart shattered, because she really did like Toni and that kiss had been magical, but the fear of her mother finding out had been too much to bear.

Once she’s all cried out, and it takes a good hour of sitting in the closet all alone, she calls Archie, because he was the only person she wanted to talk to right now. She was lucky that they lived next door to each other because he’s in her room ten minutes later, walking in to find her sitting on the bed forlornly.

“Cher, what’s wrong?” he asks immediately, standing next to the bed.

“I had a fight with Toni,” Cheryl sniffs.

“What about?”

Cheryl shakes her head.

“I can’t tell you, Arch.”

“So you, what, called me over here because you wanted to talk but now you’re saying it’s a secret? I bet if you had a fight with me you’d tell Toni, though, wouldn’t you?” Archie asks, frustrated. He doesn’t realise just how much of a toll Cheryl’s new friendship was taking on him.

“What the hell are you talking about?” Cheryl asks in shock, standing so she’s opposite Archie and crossing her arms over her chest defensively.

“Just face it, Cher, ever since she came along, it’s different. We’re different. I feel like I’m losing you and it terrifies me,” Archie replies.

“You’re not losing me, Archie, don’t be absurd! Where is this coming from, are you jealous or something?” Cheryl asks, utterly confused as to how she had gone from kissing Toni, to crying, to fighting with Archie in the space of an hour.

“Of course I’m jealous!” Archie says, his voice cracking with emotion.

“What? Why?”

“Because I love you!” Archie yells, and then he freezes as the realisation of what he’s just said hits him.

Cheryl flinches at his raised voice and his words, and then stares at him in shock.

“I love you, Cher, I always have. But it’s becoming pretty clear to me that you don’t feel the same way,” Archie says sadly.

“Arch…I don’t know what to say. I wish I could tell you that I feel the same way, that a part of me has always wanted to feel what I’m supposed to feel when I’m with you, but I don’t. And I never will,” Cheryl says quietly, as she goes to sit down on the end of the bed.

Archie follows, sitting down next to her, and sighs, running his hand through his hair.

“How do you know that, though? Is it me? Did I do something wrong? We could be the perfect couple, Cheryl, but you’ve pushed me away my whole life and I’m begging you to tell me why.”

Cheryl bites her lip as she fiddles with the hem of her sleeve, something she always did when she was nervous.

“It’s not you, Arch, you’re perfect. It’s me, actually. There’s...there’s something wrong with me,” she whispers. 

“What on earth do you mean?”

“I want to like you in that way, I do, but I can’t force something I don’t feel. I love you, Archie, I always will, but my feelings for you can never go beyond platonic because, well...because I’m gay,” Cheryl murmurs.

Archie feels the breath get knocked out of him as her words hit him straight in the chest.

“You...you’re gay?” he questions, almost reeling from the shock.

Cheryl nods as she wipes away a few tears that had spilled onto her cheeks.

“I get if you don’t want to be friends anymore. I know I’ve lied to you for so long and I can’t do anything to change that, but you don’t understand, Arch. My mother would kill me if she found out, and I mean that literally.”

“What? Why would I not want to be friends with you anymore? I mean, I’m shocked, and hurt too, because I’ve had a crush on you for so long, but it doesn’t change the fact that you’re still my best friend,” Archie says with a smile.

It all made sense to him now, why Cheryl had never been interested in him, or any boy really. That’s when he remembers the whole reason he came over here, and it dawns on him that Cheryl’s closeness with Toni could possibly be something more. His heart aches at the thought that Cheryl didn’t feel the same way, but he knows she can’t help her sexuality, and that it’s not a choice. 

Cheryl rests her head on Archie’s shoulder and sighs, but she feels lighter after finally coming forward with the truth. They sit for a while, taking in what had just happened, and then Archie breaks the silence.

“So, Toni, huh?” he says, trying to be lighthearted even though he'd just had his heart broken.

Cheryl lifts her head and nods.

“Yeah. I really messed up, Arch.”

“What happened?” Archie asks, hoping Cheryl will tell him now that they’ve spoken.

“We kissed. And I pushed her away. I really like her, and I’ve ruined it all because I was a coward,” Cheryl says dejectedly.

Archie swallows down the jealousy and hurt that he feels after hearing Cheryl and Toni had kissed, and puts an arm around her to comfort her.

“Don’t lose hope, Cher. If you really like her you should go for it. Fuck what anyone else thinks, you know you have me no matter what, you always will,” he says proudly. 

Cheryl nods again and ponders to herself. How could she let her mother get in the way of something that made her so happy?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i’m on twitter @topazandrews :)

**Author's Note:**

> i’m on twitter @topazandrews you can check there for when updates will be :)


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